South Korea’s leading blockchain game developer Wemade Co., Ltd. has recently filed injunctions against four local cryptocurrency exchanges that have announced their delisting of Wemade’s WEMIX token, local media outlets reported Wednesday.
By filing the injunction, Wemade looks to invalidate the delisting of WEMIX in South Korea’s four largest and fully licensed cryptocurrency exchanges — Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone and Korbit.
On Nov. 24, the four exchanges announced they will be delisting Wemade’s WEMIX cryptocurrency on Dec. 8.
The blockchain game maker took a big hit from the delisting announcement, with the price of WEMIX cryptocurrency plunging over 70% the same day and the shares of Wemade and subsidiaries dropping nearly 30% as the stock market opened the following day.
The declines had a ripple effect on other gaming giants in the country, with Com2uS Holdings’ stock dropping 6.27%, DragonFly falling 8.56% and Netmarble losing 3.39% on Nov. 25, according to Naver Stock.
See related article: S.Korean Wemade’s stock falls 30% after exchanges announce WEMIX token delisting; CEO blames Upbit exchange
The exchanges, which are part of joint local crypto market monitoring organization DAXA, have acted jointly in adding WEMIX to their “investing warning” list last month, for inaccurately reporting circulation numbers.
The WEMIX issuer provided an estimate to Upbit in January that some 245 million tokens were in circulation. But actual WEMIX tokens circulated until Oct. 25 exceeded the estimate by about 72 million.
In an emergency online press conference on Nov. 25, Wemade chief executive officer Henry Chang called out Upbit for abusing its power in delisting WEMIX, saying the crypto exchange was behind the “unfair treatment” Wemade was receiving.
Chang added that Upbit, which is the largest exchange in Korea, administered an abuse of power against Wemade by not responding to the company’s multiple requests for the exchange guidelines or standards on the issues surrounding token circulation.
However, Upbit told local media outlets that DAXA explained the details of circulation issues to Wemade, and that token circulation was not the only problem that led to the delisting announcement.
Upbit has not yet responded to Forkast’s request for additional comments.
Wemade is also reportedly preparing to file a complaint against the exchanges with the Fair Trade Commission (KFTC). “We will prepare with everything as a possibility,” said Chang during the online press conference, adding that the company may look into criminal litigation.
See related article: South Korea’s MIR4 maker Wemade launches stablecoin
Wemade, established in 2000, found success in adopting blockchain technology to its line of video games such as play-to-earn MMORPG game MIR4 Global, which has gained over 1.4 million concurrent users last year.
Meanwhile, the game company continues to expand its blockchain ecosystem, the latest being the launch of the non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace on its Web3 platform NILE, which stands for “NFT is Life Evolution,” on Tuesday. The marketplace is currently unavailable as NILE states the website is undergoing maintenance.
Last month, the company launched its latest blockchain mainnet WEMIX 3.0 and accompanying stablecoin and decentralized finance service.
