HTS Coin Shuts Down

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HTS Coin

HTS Coin was a cryptocurrency exchange platform in South Korea. Upon suspicion of employees embezzling customer funds (including the CEO), the platform was shut down by authorities. It's unclear the specific evidence and outcome, however the exchange appears to have insisted they are fully backed and honoured withdrawals.

This exchange or platform is based in South Korea, or the incident targeted people primarily in South Korea.

About HTS Coin

"Korea Blockchain Co., Ltd., an electronic money exchange, announced that it has developed and opened 'HTScoin', which guarantees safe transactions for all customers."

"Provides a system for efficient analysis and investment for professional traders. Supports PC programs, mobile apps, and web-based exchanges for fast trading. Existing Securities who have experienced the familiar UI system provides pre-order and convenience features provides also easy to adapt to professional traders. Profit can be maximized by providing convenient speed orders when the direction of profit is predicted. Secure stable fintech technology providing a higher level of transaction system and differentiated solution than other companies. Thorough security authentication management. Practical partnerships with reputable institutions."

"Electronic Money Exchange Korea Blockchain Co., Ltd. developed and opened its homepage PC HTS version and mobile app version under the motto of “the world’s best cryptocurrency exchange that is safe and efficient”." "Company name: Korea Blockchain Exchange Co., Ltd. | Representative: Donghwa Shin| Address: 15th floor, 238, Teheran-ro, Gangnam-gu, Seoul (Yeoksam-dong) | Business registration number: 137-86-53346|"

"[A] familiar UI is provided with the securities system that has been experienced previously, and for safe transactions of customers, a triple security system is established and a specialized security company is installed to respond 24 hours a day, 365 days a year."

"In order to accept bitcoin, Goto Mall has partnered with a local cryptocurrency exchange HTS Coin. The exchange, which opened last month, has developed a smart payment system using cryptocurrencies and has recently launched a mobile app."

"After January 30th, the real name verification deposit and withdrawal account service will be implemented in accordance with the government policy."

"[S]ome of the employees of HTS Coin crypto exchange were taken into custody last September on charges of fraud." "Three of the company’s executives, who operate virtual currency trading site HTS Coin, were arrested for [suspicion of] fraud and embezzlement,” Money Today wrote." "The officials were cross-examined by police on Monday morning, ahead of the decision to issue the warrants for their arrest."

"The Financial Investigation Division 2 of the South Korean Prosecutor’s Office “demanded a warrant for three employees, including…[the] CEO of HTS Coin,” Token Post detailed, adding that the other two employees are a program developer and a system operations manager." "Shin [the representative director] and his employees are suspected of taking money out of their accounts by transferring customer funds from a bank account to another account."

"The publication explained that the three are also suspected of “deceiving investors, [by] pretending to” have cryptocurrencies “on the computer side without having real cryptocurrencies.”" “The prosecution believes that they have falsified” records and “used the money in the customer’s account as a personal account of the exchange,” Joongang added.

"Responding to media reports, the exchange posted a notice Monday on its website maintaining that “All services except Korean won deposits, such as Korean won withdrawals, coin deposits, and coin withdrawals, are operating normally,”" "HTS Coin posted a response on their website, in a bid to reassure their customers that deposits and coins are available as promised, and confirmed the exchange is liquid should investors be looking to withdraw their funds."

"HTS Coin is currently under investigation by the prosecution and we are working diligently…Unlike external concerns, we still have 100% of your deposits and coins. We keep customer deposits and coins that can be withdrawn promptly even if all customers request a withdrawal at the same time."

"All services of HTS Coin were finally terminated at 18:00 on Sunday, June 15, 2020."

"We would like to express our deep gratitude to our customers for their support to HTS Coin so far, and please refer to the [Information] below for more details after the service has ended."

"Customers with unreturned assets can leave a direct inquiry by entering their subscription information at the bottom of the current page, or leave a request regarding unreturned assets to the company directly through our official email, info@htscoin.com. There is. Telephone consultation is not supported after the service end date."

"We do our best to respond to customers' smooth return of assets by separately managing the asset status of customers who have not returned assets."

This exchange or platform is based in South Korea, or the incident targeted people primarily in South Korea.

The background of the exchange platform, service, or individuals involved, as it would have been seen or understood at the time of the events.

Include:

• Known history of when and how the service was started.
• What problems does the company or service claim to solve?
• What marketing materials were used by the firm or business?
• Audits performed, and excerpts that may have been included.
• Business registration documents shown (fake or legitimate).
• How were people recruited to participate?
• Public warnings and announcements prior to the event.

Don't Include:

• Any wording which directly states or implies that the business is/was illegitimate, or that a vulnerability existed.
• Anything that wasn't reasonably knowable at the time of the event.

There could be more than one section here. If the same platform is involved with multiple incidents, then it can be linked to a main article page.

The Reality

This sections is included if a case involved deception or information that was unknown at the time. Examples include:

• When the service was actually started (if different than the "official story").
• Who actually ran a service and their own personal history.
• How the service was structured behind the scenes. (For example, there was no "trading bot".)
• Details of what audits reported and how vulnerabilities were missed during auditing.

What Happened

The specific events of the loss and how it came about. What actually happened to cause the loss and some of the events leading up to it.

Key Event Timeline - HTS Coin Shuts Down

Date	Event	Description
June 15th, 2020	Main Event	Expand this into a brief description of what happened and the impact. If multiple lines are necessary, add them here.

Technical Details

This section includes specific detailed technical analysis of any security breaches which happened. What specific software vulnerabilities contributed to the problem and how were they exploited?

Total Amount Lost

The total amount lost is unknown.

How much was lost and how was it calculated? If there are conflicting reports, which are accurate and where does the discrepancy lie?

Immediate Reactions

How did the various parties involved (firm, platform, management, and/or affected individual(s)) deal with the events? Were services shut down? Were announcements made? Were groups formed?

Ultimate Outcome

What was the end result? Was any investigation done? Were any individuals prosecuted? Was there a lawsuit? Was any tracing done?

Total Amount Recovered

There do not appear to have been any funds recovered in this case.

What funds were recovered? What funds were reimbursed for those affected users?

Ongoing Developments

What parts of this case are still remaining to be concluded?

General Prevention Policies

Under our framework, we recommend regular reviews of platforms to ensure that all customer assets are backed. This includes a cryptographic proof that any customer can use to ensure they were considered in the validation. Further certainty can also be provided through visible blockchain wallets.

Multi-signature wallet ensure that all platform operators are aware of outgoing transactions and no single operator can remove any funds.

Individual Prevention Policies

No specific policies for individual prevention have yet been identified in this case.

For the full list of how to protect your funds as an individual, check our Prevention Policies for Individuals guide.

Platform Prevention Policies

Policies for platforms to take to prevent this situation have not yet been selected in this case.

For the full list of how to protect your funds as a financial service, check our Prevention Policies for Platforms guide.

Regulatory Prevention Policies

No specific regulatory policies have yet been identified in this case.

For the full list of regulatory policies that can prevent loss, check our Prevention Policies for Regulators guide.