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| A person walks by the headquarters of Wemade located in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, Wednesday. Yonhap |
By Anna J. Park
Wemix, the cryptocurrency developed by game company Wemade, ended up getting delisted from four major local coin exchanges as of 3 p.m. Thursday, as a local court rejected an injunction request filed by Wemade on Wednesday evening. Wemade filed the court injunction late last month, asking the court to stop the coin exchange association's decision to delist the game company's key cryptocurrency on the grounds of false disclosure.
As the four major coin exchanges ― Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone and Korbit ― take up more than 95 percent of the cryptocurrency trading volume in Korea, the delisting from the exchanges means that Wemix can no longer be traded normally. Holders of the coin should transfer their Wemix to overseas exchanges, which still support the trading of Wemix, or the game company's cyber wallet. The exchanges say that Wemix holders must withdraw their coins from them by Jan. 5 next year.
Right before its delisting at 3 p.m. Thursday, Wemix's price plunged below 170 won ($0.13). The price of the coin hovered at above 1,000 won a day earlier before the announcement of the court's rejection of the injunction. The game coin once hit 29,490 won in November last year at Bithumb.
Wemix's price is not the only one that has nosedived. Wemade and two other listed affiliates of the game company saw their stock prices fall. The three stocks all listed on the tech-heavy Kosdaq market plunged on Thursday's session, with Wemade falling by 20.29 percent, Wemade Max by 20.5 percent and Wemade Play by 4.29 percent.
While the court's decision on Wednesday seems to side with the view of the Digital Asset eXchange Association (DAXA) ― an alliance of five major coin exchanges in Korea, which are Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit and Gopax ― that Wemix committed a grave violation with its false disclosure of its coin circulation plan, some also criticize DAXA decision's arbitrariness as well.
Independent Rep. Yang Jung-suk pointed out that DAXA is an alliance of the five major coin exchanges, which does not have any legal basis in its establishment, and there's no restraint mechanism to exert necessary checks on it.
"DAXA's guideline for listing assessments hasn't even been shared to the financial authorities, yet the alliance's joint responses deeply depend on the guidelines. Even if some subjective or arbitrary decisions are made, there's no mechanism that could place checks on them to prevent such arbitrariness," the lawmaker said.
DAXA responded that it cannot reveal the guidelines for listing and delisting due to concerns over misuse, arguing that the alliance is striving for maintaining independence.
Meanwhile, Wemade said it will continue in its legal battles to prove that DAXA's decision was unfair.
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