South Korean watchdog probes Coinone after MOVE price soared x46k times: report

South Korea’s financial watchdog is investigating the Coinone crypto exchange over Movement’s token sharp price swings, raising concerns over potential unfair trading.

A major investigation is underway into Korean crypto exchange Coinone after the price of the Movement (MOVE) token saw a sudden and extreme fluctuation, according to a report by Korean news outlet MTN.

The Financial Supervisory Service, which is responsible for overseeing and regulating financial institutions, is reportedly looking into whether there were any unfair trades on Coinone when the price of MOVE jumped 46,000 times higher before quickly falling back down, the report reads.

On Dec. 9, the Movement Network Foundation announced the token generation event of MOVE, a token built on the Movement blockchain and written in the Move programming language, which was initially developed for the Diem project (formerly Libra) by Facebook’s blockchain division.

On the same day, Movement’s price shot up from 215.3 won (around $0.15) to 998,500 won ($697) within minutes on Coinone, before dropping to 5,300 won shortly after, MTN claims. Now, the FSS is checking whether the exchange followed the correct procedures during this event and if there were any unusual trades.

The FSS is also reviewing how exactly Coinone listed Movement as the token started trading earlier than other Korean crypto exchanges like Upbit and Bithumb, raising questions about how the listing process was handled.