South Korea’s leading cryptocurrency exchange, Upbit, has announced plans to end trading support for Bitcoin Gold (BTG) starting January 23, 2025, at 14:30 KST.
This decision, disclosed in a notice published on December 24, follows months of scrutiny over BTG’s market performance and operational transparency.
As part of the delisting process, all buy and sell orders for BTG placed after January 23 will be automatically cancelled. Upbit will also cease support for services related to BTG, including airdrops, wallet updates, and hard forks.
Upbit had previously flagged BTG as a “subject of caution” on December 10 due to heightened volatility. Following a thorough evaluation of the asset’s transparency, sustainability, and practicality, the exchange determined that BTG had not resolved the issues that led to its initial designation.
“Upbit determined that the reasons for designating Bitcoin Gold as a subject of caution have not been resolved, and decided to terminate trading support in accordance with our policies,”
the exchange explained in its notice.
Why Upbit Removed Bitcoin Gold
Upbit’s decision was tied to concerns about Bitcoin Gold’s disclosures, operational transparency and long-term viability.
The exchange’s review process considers factors including whether a project provides important information to the market, the transparency of its operations, the substance of its business and whether the project can continue operating sustainably.
Reports on the delisting said Upbit concluded that Bitcoin Gold had failed to resolve the issues that led to its investment-caution designation. The cryptocurrency had also faced questions about its development and management structure.
Bitcoin Gold has a history of security problems. The network suffered 51% attacks in 2018 and 2020, raising concerns about the security of its blockchain. Those incidents also contributed to several major international exchanges dropping support for the asset in subsequent years.
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What happens after delisting
While trading support will end, BTG withdrawals will remain available until February 22, 2025. However, Upbit warned that delays could occur for withdrawal requests submitted after this date.
Bitcoin Gold, launched in 2017 as a Bitcoin hard fork, sought to decentralize mining by utilizing GPUs instead of ASIC hardware. Despite its initial appeal as a user-friendly alternative to Bitcoin, BTG’s relevance has significantly diminished over time.
In contrast to its BTG delisting, Upbit has been actively adding new tokens to its platform. Recent additions include MOCA, the native token of the metaverse project Mocaverse; ME, Magic Eden’s gaming token; and MOVE, the token for the Layer-2 protocol Movement. Trading for the most recent addition, MOCA, began on December 16, 2024, at 14:00 KST, with pairs available in Korean Won (KRW), Bitcoin (BTC), and Tether (USDT). Upbit also enforced initial restrictions such as buy limits, minimum sell price thresholds, and a temporary suspension of market orders for the first hour of trading to ensure a stable launch.
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