Five major South Korean crypto exchanges including Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit and Gopax announced to delist Litecoin (LTC) after the coin launched its privacy-focused MimbleWimble (MWEB) upgrade.
On Wednesday, Upbit released a public statement and cited the Act on the Reporting and Use of Specific Financial Transaction Information, which forbids ‘anonymous transactions’ as the main reason for ending support for LTC. Upbit will terminate transaction support on 20th June, 11:00.
Meanwhile, Bithumb has also announced deposit suspension for June 8, 2022. It is followed by the end of transaction support in the first week of July and the end of withdrawal support is scheduled for July 25 at 15:00 local time.
The delisting comes after LTC’s MWEB upgrade that made LTC transactions private, hiding some of the key identifiers. Nearly two years after its first proposal, the upgrade was released earlier this year.
At first, crypto exchange firms had contacted the Litecoin Foundation to understand the controversial update. However, after an extensive review, the exchange decided to terminate support for LTC transactions. Exchange users have 30 days to withdraw their LTC funds.
Upbit commented that it decided to terminate the transaction support for LTC. This was done as the optional function that keeps the transaction information hidden in this network upgrade corresponds to ‘anonymous transmission technology under the Specific Financial Information Act’.
Bithumb & Upbit had already warned innovators against Litecoin transactions in the last week of May citing Korean laws. Note that Korean exchanges have delisted several other privacy coins in the past, too.
