Investor sues Upbit for $113,700 in damages

A 50-year-old man filed a lawsuit in the Seoul Central District Court against the Upbit marketplace.

On March 24, a trader attempted to transfer 1310 LUNA from an Upbit wallet to a Binance wallet in order to exchange it for Vietnamese dong. The next day, Binance notified him that LUNA was being returned due to transfer issues. Unable to find the returned crypto assets, the investor turned to Upbit support. It turned out that LUNA was accidentally moved to the Upbit wallet, and the transaction was delayed due to mandatory account verification.

According to the requirements of the Travel Rule, presented by the International Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF), virtual asset service providers (VASPs) are required to verify information about the sender and recipient of digital assets. Earlier, the South Korean government made this amendment to the Financial Transactions Reporting Law, and it came into effect on March 25.

The defense alleges that the investor asked Upbit specialists about the return of LUNA 27 times, but they answered the same thing: “In the process of processing.” According to the user, due to Upbit’s delay in processing the request, he was never able to cash out LUNA before the collapse of the Terra project. As a result, the investor lost 156 million won (about $113,700). Dunamu said it is checking information on the lawsuit. The company noted that according to the terms of service, it is not responsible for any losses of traders.

A few years ago, investors filed a lawsuit against the Bithumb trading platform. They lost their crypto assets due to technical problems. It was only recently that a South Korean appeals court ruled that Bithumb must compensate the loss of 190 customers for a total of $1.5 million.