South Korea's Dormant Crypto Exchanges Cash In on Licenses

Seven out of eleven South Korean cryptocurrency exchanges have not recorded any Bitcoin trades in the past two years, sparking concerns about their legitimacy. A review by Seoul Economic Daily found that these seven exchanges - BTX, Prabang, Bitkmon, Coredax, Crypto.com, Boravit and Oasis Exchange - had no record of Bitcoin trading over the past two years.

While some altcoins trade intermittently on speculative demand, the absence of any trading in Bitcoin suggests that these platforms have effectively lost their core function. Trading volumes at the remaining exchanges were negligible as well. For example, Inex recorded about 0.1 Bitcoin trades from the 5th to the 11th of this month.

Industry observers interpret the lack of actual trading as an effort to appear normal. Many operators continue to post notices and cryptocurrency-related content, even if they're not actually trading. Analysts say that keeping these firms alive also works to their advantage in a future sale, as the value of companies holding VASP status has been climbing again.