April 24, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] CoinMarketCap, a leading real-time price and market capitalization tracker of cryptocurrencies, on Jan. 8 excluded Korean data from its calculations and analysis, citing the higher trading price compared to other markets.

The website now excludes data from Korea’s top three exchanges -- Bithumb, Coinone and Korbit -- from its calculations of virtual money rates.

Following the surprise announcement, prices of most virtual currencies tumbled globally, with the most popular Bitcoin tumbling to a one-week low below US$14,000 in the US. As of 4 p.m. in Korea, Bitcoin was trading at 23.148 million won (US$21.692) at Bithumb, down 7.14 percent from a day earlier, which is still almost 40 percent higher than the US price. 

Global chart of market capitalization of cryptocurrencies (CoinMarketCap)

CoinMarketCap did not say the exclusion was permanent, but said that “it is working on better tools to provide users with averages that are most relevant to them.”

“The new price after excluding Korean rates is more accurate and meaningful,” Ripple’s chief cryptographer David Schwartz said on his Twitter account despite an almost 25 percent fall in Ripple’s value right after the Korean exclusion.

Amid Korea’s toughened regulations against speculative cryptocurrency trading, Korean investors seem to be turning their eyes to foreign exchanges. But some popular exchanges such as Biance and Bitfinex stopped accepting new accounts early this month, saying the demand was “extraordinary.”

By Park Ga-young (gypark@heraldcorp.com)