Digital signboards show the prices of cryptocurrencies at local cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb’s office in southern Seoul in this file photo taken April 27, 2021. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, April 5 (Korea Bizwire) — Rising concerns are alluding to cryptocurrency exchanges in South Korea receiving higher commissions than securities firms despite issues in the stability of transactions.
Rep. Yoo Gyeong-joon of the People Power Party received reports from the Financial Services Commission and the Financial Supervisory Service that four major cryptocurrency exchanges in the country, including Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone and Korbit experienced 98 cases of transaction failures over the past three years.
This was three times the number of transaction failures experienced by the four major securities firms (35 cases) during the same period.
Among the four cryptocurrency exchanges, Coinone experienced the highest number of transaction failures (39 cases) over the past three years.
These failures have largely been attributed to the sudden inflow of investors during fluctuations in the market. There were, however, two cases related to hacks and security breaches.
Cryptocurrency transactions lack legislation or regulations for investor protection, which has left the exchanges without any record of transaction failures prior to 2019.
Among the four cryptocurrency exchanges, the top player Upbit charges a commission of 0.05 percent, which is lower than other exchanges but 3.5 times the amount collected by securities firms Mirae Asset Securities and Korea Investment & Securities.
The average commission among the four major cryptocurrency exchanges (0.16 percent) was far higher than Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange (0.065 percent) or FTX (0.033 percent).
H. M. Kang (hmkang@koreabizwire.com)
