From 'Crypto Winter' to a coin duplication incident: Concerns grow over a shrinking virtual asset market [Crypto Briefing]

The domestic virtual asset market is facing growing concern that it may contract even further. The global slump in virtual assets, combined with the recent Bitcoin misallocation incident, is seen as freezing investor sentiment.
According to virtual asset data platform CoinGecko on the 9th, total trading volume on Korea’s five major KRW markets—Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit and GOPAX—came to 3.69248 billion dollars on the 8th. From the 1st to the 5th, daily trading volume hovered between 2.3 and 4.3 billion dollars, then jumped to 5.15229 billion dollars on the 6th and 7.04088 billion dollars on the 7th before dropping sharply.
The pullback appears largely due to a slowdown in bargain hunting that had surged in the wake of Bithumb’s Bitcoin misallocation incident.
Market participants expect total trading volume on KRW markets to continue declining this month. They forecast that the broad downturn in virtual assets, which began late last year, will persist for some time. Monthly total trading volume on the five KRW markets stood at 160.14614 billion dollars in July last year, when Bitcoin was strong, then fell to 136.69969 billion in August, 124.5758 billion in September and 122.52552 billion in October. As the rally faded, volume dropped to 100.26663 billion dollars in November and then was cut in half to 56.73110 billion in December.
At the start of this year, signs of a rebound in Bitcoin helped trading volumes recover as well. Bitcoin climbed to around 96,000 dollars last month, and total trading volume rose to 74.37133 billion dollars, up about 17.64 billion from the previous month. However, the virtual asset market has been plunging again this month. Bitcoin began falling at the end of last month and dropped into the 60,000‐dollar range on the 6th.
On top of this, the Bitcoin misallocation incident has raised questions among investors about the overall trustworthiness of virtual asset exchanges, fueling concerns over further deterioration in sentiment. In this case, more Bitcoin was credited in the system than the exchange actually held, sparking controversy over so‐called "ghost Bitcoin." One virtual asset investor argued, "This incident showed that even if an exchange manipulates its books and falsely inflates the circulating supply, there is no way for users to know."
The financial authorities have launched an emergency inspection to review internal controls at virtual asset exchanges, and the exchanges are actively cooperating with the investigation.
An industry official stated, "We see this incident as an issue affecting the entire industry," adding, "We are doing our utmost to cooperate with the authorities’ investigation to restore trust, and all exchanges are focusing on putting in place safeguards and contingency measures to prevent similar accidents."
yimsh0214@fnnews.com Lim Sang-hyuk Reporter