South Korea: Crypto Exchange Coinnest Shutting down Operations

Coinnest, a leading South Korean exchange, and bitcoin trading venue have announced it’s closing shop due to challenging market conditions and other unfavorable factors that have hampered its continued growth, according to a press release by the firm on April 18, 2019.

End of the Road for Coinnest

As stated in its press release, South Korean digital assets exchange, Coinnest has decided to shutter its crypto trading platform, citing unfavorable circumstances.

Coinnest stated:

“Since the launch of our platform, all our employees have done their utmost best to render high-quality services to our clients. However, the changes in the crypto markets have made it impossible for us to continue in business.” 

The exchange says it has stopped registering new members since April 16, 2019, and all crypto trading activities will be entirely suspended on May 30, 2019, while customers have been advised to start withdrawing their funds with immediate effect, as the withdrawal process will end in June 2019.

Coinnest has also made it clear that it has slashed withdrawal fees and reduced the minimum withdrawal threshold to make it easier for users to move their assets from the platform before June 30, 2019.

A Long Time Coming

Since its launch in 2017, the crypto journey has been everything but smooth for Coinnest and its operators.

Earlier in April 2017, BTCManager informed that Coinnest’s CEO, Kim IK-hwan, along with top executives of three other crypto exchanges had been arrested by Korean law enforcement agents for alleged embezzlement and misappropriation of clients’ funds.

The prosecutors declared at the time:

“They are being questioned about the embezzlement of billions of won from their clients’ accounts and transferring it to their own.” 

In another sad event for the firm, in January 2019, Coinnest tried airdropping We Game Tokens (WGT) to its users, however, the entire process went awfully wrong and the exchange ended up transferring millions of dollars worth of bitcoin and other virtual currencies to its clients instead.

Mixed Fortunes for Bitcoin Businesses

While the downturn in the price of bitcoin since 2018 is not the worst bloodbath the cryptocurrency industry has witnessed so far, it has, however, succeeded in killing numerous crypto-based startups across the globe.

On April 7, 2019, BTCManager reported that Hut 8, a Canadian bitcoin mining company had laid many of its employees due to unfavorable market conditions.