Korean crypto executives allegedly profited $2.3M from coin listing scandal According to local news
outlet The JoongAng, an indictment
on May 22 revealed that four individuals named
Mr. Jeon, Mr. Kim, Mr. Ko and Mr. Hwang in court proceedings, all of whom were employees
of South Korean crypto exchange Coinone, allegedly used illicit means
to profit more than 2.98 billion Korean won ($2.26 million) during coin listings
from various projects. At least
46 coins were involved in the incident lasting
from November 2019 to December 2022, accounting for nearly
25% of all tokens listed on Coinone.
As told by prosecutors,
Coinone executives and staff members required projects to sign a market-making
(MM) contract with a specific
MM company through brokers
before a coin’s listing. This was done to ensure sufficient
liquidity in trading volume after the new coins were listed. However, the contract’s recipients
allegedly operated illegally by artificially boosting trading volume and prices through cross-trading.
Coinone executives also allegedly enticed projects into signing such contracts by offering to remove
“listing deposits” if they did so.