Upbit, South Korea’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange, is preparing legal action against crypto coin issuer Pica Project, whose tokens it has delisted from its platform.
Fast facts:
- Amid a bitter battle over the number of Pica coins on the market, and a claim by Pica Project that Upbit misappropriated at least 4.5 million of its coins, the exchange is suing the coin issuer over what it describes as maliciously spreading false information.
- Upbit delisted the Pica coin last Thursday, after saying in March that it had found evidence that the coin’s sales had not been properly disclosed to investors. According to Upbit, the circulation of Pica in March was to be about 120 million coins, but in reality, a total of around 330 million coins were in circulation.
- Pica Project responded to that assertion in a blog post just last week. On Thursday it said it found Upbit’s reasons for delisting its coin difficult to understand. The coin issuer argued that the full number of Pica coins in circulation had been disclosed to investors via publicity platform Xangle.io.
- That didn’t stop the delisting the very next day, and the day after that, Pica hit back in another blog post, accusing Upbit of misusing 5 million of the coins that the exchange had requested for use in a marketing promotion when the Pica token was listed in January. Pica alleged that less than 10 percent of the 5 million coins had been used for the event, writing in its post that it was likely that coins earmarked exclusively for the event may have been sold and traded on Upbit’s platform.
- Upbit denies that claim, saying it did not demand coins in exchange for listing. Upbit wrote in an official statement in response to Pica Project’s blog post that it had not used or sold any remaining coins after the event, and it would hold the Pica Project team legally responsible for the malicious dissemination of false information.