Litecoin (LTC), the 20th-largest cryptocurrency in the world, is being ousted from South Korean crypto exchanges after its Mimblewimble Extension Blocks (MWEB) upgrade allowed the token to be sent anonymously — which is against local anti-money laundering regulations.
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Fast facts
- Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit and Gopax, five of South Korea’s digital asset exchanges that let users trade in crypto using cash, have announced that they will delist LTC from their platforms.
- South Korean investors will no longer be able to trade Litecoin with the Korean won.
- Some local exchanges such as Foblgate and Coredax that only service token-to-token trades have also designated Litecoin as a “hazardous investment” — which could later lead to delisting.
- Litecoin’s latest blockchain upgrade MWEB provides more privacy by giving users the option to trading LTC on “Extension Blocks,” which will obscure the addresses and amounts involved in the transactions.
- The MWEB update runs afoul of South Korea’s strict anti-money laundering regulations applied to its crypto sector last year, which sought to remove anonymity from crypto transactions.
- The regulation requires exchanges that wish to service cash-to-crypto transactions to partner with local banks so that users trade using real-name accounts.
- Litecoin has fallen about 5% since South Korean exchanges announced the delisting, trading at US$61.17 at the time of publication.
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