Singapore’s financial authority is said to have suspended Bitget, a cryptocurrency exchange embroiled in a dispute with South Korea’s top boy band, BTS.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore’s logo has been taken off Bitget’s website, reported the Guardian. According to its website, the platform still claims to hold licenses from Australia, Canada, and the United States.
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According to a Financial Times story published on Sunday, Bitget was halted after being embroiled in a high-profile controversy over the promotion of the digital currency Army Coin, which is named after the band’s fans, known as the BTS army.
The BTS management company, Hybe Corporation, warned the platform with legal action in October for advertising Army Coin to traders using an unauthorized picture of the band and disseminating what it said was false information that the coin was designed for BTS and meant to enhance earnings.
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BTS made history earlier this year when the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry awarded them, making them the first act to perform in a language other than English to top the yearly rating.
In a statement at the time, Hybe stated that the currency had “no affiliation” with BTS and asked anybody who had experienced financial harm as a result of Army Coin to contact their local police station.
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Bitget, which was founded in Singapore in 2018, supports the Italian football team Juventus and claims to have over 1.5 million members globally. According to its website, the current fundraising round valued the company at more than $1 billion (about £760 million).
The platform said that as of November 30 it had 11,626 traders managing a $4 billion 24-hour trading volume. On November 5, it launched a Turkish website.
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Bitget also announced a collaboration with stablecoin issuer Circle in June to become one of the first exchanges to list USD Coin (USDC) as collateral for trading crypto derivatives.