Dispute Embroils Bitget in Legal Battle With Crypto Influencer

Top Korean Crypto Exchanges Witness Surge in Listings and Delistings During H1In the first half of this year, South Korea’s top five cryptocurrency exchanges experienced notable growth in the number of newly added cryptocurrencies to their platforms. However, they also observed a significant surge in the number of cryptocurrencies being delisted.Photo by Shubham Dhage on UnsplashDelisting and listingAccording to a report by local news outlet Etoday, the nation’s five leading exchanges Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit, and Gopax ceased trading for a total of 51 cryptocurrencies during the first six months of this year. This marked an 88% increase compared to the 27 cryptocurrencies delisted in the previous six-month period. During the first half of last year, the number of delisted tokens was 48.Among the five exchanges, Coinone took the lead by delisting the highest number of cryptocurrencies, totaling 24. Bithumb followed with 14 delisted tokens, Gopax with six, Upbit with five, and Korbit with two. Notably, Coinone continued its delisting spree this month, removing an additional five cryptocurrencies from its platform. Most cryptos were delisted because their projects and services were not operating normally.The significant number of delisted tokens at Coinone appears to be linked to the involvement of its former employees in the unlawful listing of certain tokens. These individuals reportedly received bribes in exchange for listing a total of 46 cryptocurrencies on the trading platform. Among these tokens were PICA and PURE, which are no longer traded on the exchange.Only five cryptocurrencies were delisted according to the decision made by the Digital Asset eXchange Alliance (DAXA), a self-regulatory group consisting of the aforementioned five crypto exchanges. The delisted tokens were REP, BASIC, OMG, SRM, and PCI. This indicates that most of the affected cryptocurrencies were exclusively traded on one of the DAXA member exchanges, indicating that DAXA’s listing and delisting guidelines were largely ineffective.Meanwhile, there has been a notable surge in the number of newly added cryptocurrencies. Bithumb, for instance, took the lead by listing an impressive 63 new tokens, nearly three times the number listed by Upbit (22). In the same vein, Coinone added 14 tokens, while Korbit and Gopax followed with six and three new listings, respectively.Profit squeezeLast year, crypto trading platforms adopted a conservative approach when it came to listing and delisting procedures, prioritizing investor protection. However, their stance shifted as the global crypto market encountered a significant decline in trading volume amid crypto winter. This decrease in trading activity subsequently led to reduced operating profits, compelling the platforms to list more cryptocurrencies.With the exception of Upbit, which maintains a dominant market share in the nation, the outlook on crypto exchanges appears more or less grim. In particular, Coinone, Korbit, and Gopax are in the red. Bithumb, while still in profit, saw its operating profit last year falling 80% year-over-year to 163.5 billion KRW ($127.9 million). This trend continued this year, with Bithumb’s operating profit In the first quarter of this year recording 16.2 billion KRW, an 80% decrease compared to the same period last year.In light of this development, an industry insider, who wished to stay anonymous, told Etoday that while the market’s total trading volume is witnessing a considerable decline, Upbit’s dominance is still growing. This individual also noted that the decrease in trading volume and the resulting deficit are exerting pressure on exchanges to expand their cryptocurrency listings.

Singaporean Researchers Devise More Effective DAO VotingResearchers at the Singapore University of Social Sciences have come up with a more efficient governance model for decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs).Photo by Shubham Dhage on UnsplashDAO governance reviewThe scientists presented their work via a paper titled “Voting Schemes in DAO Governance,” which was published earlier this week. The paper is due to appear in the Annual Review of Fintech in due course.The research paper initially sets out with a review of the different forms of voting currently used to affect DAO governance in the various early stage projects that are already up and running. Having taken a deep dive into existing approaches, the research team of Qinxu Ding, Weibiao Xu, Zhiguo Wang and David Kuo Chuen Lee decided that they could go one better themselves.Their review encompassed eight current approaches including the following: token-based quorum voting, knowledge-extractable voting, conviction voting and reputation-based voting. Each voting scheme was then evaluated based on the following factors:Efficiency: An assessment of the speed at which proposals are selected and approved.Fairness: Each voter should have equal rights to vote.Scalability: The degree to which storage, computation and communication needs can be adjusted relative to the number of voters.Robustness: An assessment of the relative resistance of the voting scheme to attacks and collusion.Incentive Schemes: The extent to which DAO members are motivated to vote.Following on from that analysis, the scientists put forward a hypothetical voting mechanism with design considerations relative to fully decentralized and permissionless DAO governance. When it came to ratings, the holographic consensus approach scored highest, with a “high” rating in the categories of efficiency, fairness and robustness, dropping down to medium when it came to scalability. None of the other approaches came close.In trying to go one better, the team took the holographic consensus approach and set out to create their own hypothetical voting mechanism based on this model. As evidenced from the paper, they tried to effect improvements to this approach:“We know that the downside of the conviction voting mechanism is that it takes time to approve an urgent proposal. To address this concern, we introduce a blind betting mechanism: each member could choose whether to bet on any proposals with a certain number of their tokens.”The researcher’s hypothetical model allows stakeholders to gamble their tokens on the likelihood of a proposal passing or failing. The logic with this approach, they claim, is that it would speed up the governance process, while making it more robust at the same time.In concluding remarks, the researchers acknowledged that all approaches were not without their pros and cons. They point out that the further development of DAOs shouldn’t be confined to a static organizational future. While they believe that their own hypothetical scheme is in theory superior, they acknowledge that it too has flaws. With that, the realities of implementing it in the real world may be a challenge.

OKX maintains robust asset reserves with 103% BTC backingSeychelles-incorporated cryptocurrency exchange OKX has recently released its 12th asset reserve certificate, with its latest report revealing that the company maintains reserves of 103% for its top coins, which include Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Ripple (XRP), Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC). The measure is meant to reassure users that their funds are well-backed and, in fact, more than covered by the exchange’s reserves.Photo by rc.xyz NFT gallery on UnsplashBitcoin, Ether reserve surplusesOKX provided details on its latest asset reserve status via a blog post published to its website on Monday. Alongside providing the relevant asset reserve data, the exchange celebrated its first complete year of having utilized a proof-of-reserve-based system.For BTC, OKX holds a substantial reserve of 140,484 BTC, effectively exceeding the 136,227 BTC held in user accounts. Similarly, ETH reserves stand at 1.46 million ETH, providing a surplus over the 1.42 million ETH owed to OKX users.The exchange also demonstrated its considerable holdings in stablecoins, with over $5 billion in USDT reserves and over $327 million in USDC reserves. In an interview with CoinDesk recently, OKX Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Haider Rafique, referred to the need to provide a mechanism to reassure platform users. He stated:“Customers often express concerns in person about centralized exchanges, highlighting issues with security, solvency and downtimes, even if they don’t always voice these concerns digitally.”Use of zero-knowledge technologyIn April, OKX upgraded its proof of reserve system, opting for the use of zero-knowledge scalable transparent argument of knowledge (zk-STARK) technology. This approach allows OKX platform users to independently verify exchange solvency, confirming their assets are backed by OKX reserves. A zero-knowledge proof demonstrates the truth of a statement without sharing the statement’s contents. Therefore, no account balances are made public to other service users, maintaining user privacy.Regular transparency is now crucial for exchanges like OKX, as it aims to provide users with the certainty that their funds are genuinely available for withdrawal at any given time. After the FTX insolvency incident, verifiable proof of reserves has become paramount in reassuring users about the safety of their investments.Trend towards improved standardsIn the wake of several high-profile crypto platform failures in 2022, many exchanges are making greater efforts towards reassuring users that their funds are safe and accounted for. This has given rise to the popularity of proof of reserve systems.On that basis, OKX hasn’t been alone in implementing a proof of reserves-based system. In July another Seychelles-incorporated crypto platform, Bitget, announced that it could demonstrate the debt-free status of its business through its proof of reserves system.Nic Carter, Partner at crypto venture capital and private equity firm Castle Island Ventures, has carried out some research into the various proof of reserve systems employed by a number of global crypto platforms. While accepting that the approach is not foolproof, Carter maintains that it’s still a move in the right direction. “The way PoR works is, if enough exchanges do it, the few exchanges that don’t do it end up sticking out like a sore thumb,” he states.