The cryptocurrency exchange platform, UpBit has been blocking its foreign users from making withdrawals in the exchange.
It was reported that the South Korean exchange was attacked in November 2019. A total of 342,000 ETH, valued at approximately $ 50 million at that time, were stolen.
The exchange began to avoid withdrawals in December 2019. At that time, it was thought that it was as a result of the attack. However, it seems that the prevention of withdrawals may be the result of the tax fine.
Users thought that withdrawals were avoided so the company could investigate the attacks. Investors had speculated that the attack was worse than the company reported.
6,300 Chinese users have complained that they have been prevented from making withdrawals since December. This was as a result of the exchange policy prohibiting all withdrawals of foreigners, even those who had updated the details of KYC.
Chinese users told Golden Finance in a Jinse report that:
«Since November of last year, the withdrawal by the Korean exchange UPbit has been banned (only foreign users are prohibited from withdrawing money). KYC was sent according to UPbit requirements After the information, the situation has not been resolved. In addition, users who did not send KYC information in a timely manner have been blocked from their accounts and cannot log in at all. »
With the new information coming to light, it seems that the ban was not the result of the attack. It could have been the result of the Bithumb tax scandal that resulted in an UpBit fine with a withholding tax of 80.3 billion Korean won, or 70 million dollars.
UpBit has responded that they are trying to strengthen their KYC and the possibility of internal taxes.
“We are strengthening the administration of KYC in response to the FATF proposal… After hearing reports on Bithumb taxes at the end of December, we also began to verify the possibility of internal taxes. Since then, foreign customers who have added KYC cannot cancel the withdrawal. To reduce the inconvenience of the foreign customer, we are conducting investigations from all angles. We are trying our best to solve the inconvenience of foreign customers as soon as possible. «
A lawyer close to UpBit said Jinse reported that UPbit representatives tried to use 20% of the withdrawal amount of foreign users as collateral for subsequent tax refunds.
