South Korea’s Biggest Exchange UPBit Cleared after Audit

This article was first published here

UPBit, currently the largest crypto exchange in Korea, has been cleared following an audit which confirmed that it was 100% solvent.

On 11th May, authorities raided UPBit to carry out investigations on alleged inflated volumes and balance sheet manipulation.

Both the Financial Services Commission (FSC) and the Korea Financial Intelligence Unit (KFIU) participated in the raid, seizing accounting books and hard disks from the company’s offices.

Less than a week after the raid, UPBit hired Yoojin, one of the top accounting firms in Korea to validate the company’s balance sheets and its holdings.

On 15th May, Yoojin officially cleared the exchange reporting that its holdings matched the balance sheet listing of its user funds.

Reports published at the time said:

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Since early 2018, UPbit created snapshots of its multi-signature wallets and funds stored within them for auditing purposes. Yoojin accounting firm…confirmed that all of the funds on the UPbit platform match the cryptocurrency holdings of UPbit”

Speculations Cleared by Dunamoo Report

In spite of the Yoojin audited report, the government remained mum on the case leading to speculation on the state of the exchange and doubts regarding its safety.

On 4th Augusdt, Dunamoo, a subsidiary of South Korea’s main internet conglomerate, Kakao, released a report citing the findings of Yoojin.

The report placed emphasis on the fact that exchanges holdings and user funds as recorded on its balance sheets tally 100%, and that it in fact holds 27% more than investor funds.

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UPbit currently has the exact amount of money held by the platform’s investors along with additional funds, more than enough to compensate every investor,” said Lee Seok-woo, Dunamoo president.

Dunamoo’s report thus conclusively proves the company’s solvency, and debunks claims of illicit operations by UPBit.

Following the recent Bithumb incident that has incapacitated operations for at least a month, UPBit has taken over the first spot as the top crypto exchange in the country.