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Traders Accused of Insider Trading Zcash, as Price Surges After Bithumb Integration

Last Updated March 4, 2021 5:00 PM
Joseph Young
Last Updated March 4, 2021 5:00 PM

Various trusted sources including CryptoKorean revealed earlier today, on September 28, that one Bithumb employee allegedly disclosed Bithumb’s plans to integrate ZCash and Qtum. Screenshots of the conversation between the employee and an anonymous individual surfaced on popular cryptocurrency and bitcoin trading forums in South Korea.

Insider Trading of ZCash, Bithumb Employee Reveals Integration Plan

The Bithumb employee went as far as to share an official Bithumb document on the launch of Zcash, which was distributed to employees and developers working on the integration within the company.

The employee also noted:

“it is a similar situation with Ripple. Zcash was initially the second in line behind Ripple but the Bithumb development team is deciding whether Qtum is a better pick, primarily because it has higher trading volumes. But, Bithumb is still skeptical on Zcash because both ZCash and Qtum are not well recognized in the South Korean cryptocurrency exchange market.”

Almost immediately after the Bithumb ZCash integration plans were unravelled, the trading volume of ZCash surged, as the price of ZCash increased from $280 to $450, for the first time since its launch in November of 2016.

Prominent bitcoin traders and investors including WhalePanda reaffirmed insider trading of ZCash, as the price of the anonymous cryptocurrency surged prior to the official integration of Bithumb. The price of ZCash surged once again after it was integrated to the trading platform of Bithumb.

Why Did Bithumb Integration Create Such High Demand Toward ZCash?

Bithumb, the South Korean exchange market’s leading cryptocurrency trading platform, is also the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world. Earlier this month, Bithumb surpassed $2.5 billion in daily trading volume, securing its position as the global cryptocurrency exchange market’s leading trading platform with ease.

According to various cryptocurrency market data providers including CoinMarketCap, the daily trading volume of the entire cryptocurrency market is $4.7 billion. That means, Bithumb accounts for over 50 percent of global cryptocurrency trades on a daily basis.

For cryptocurrencies, especially those that are not ranked as the top ten largest digital currencies in the market, being listed on Bithumb, a major global exchange, is a huge boost in liquidity. More importantly, Bithumb’s integration also introduces cryptocurrencies to the South Korean exchange market, which is evolving into a major market for cryptocurrencies.

A similar situation to the Bithumb development team’s integration of ZCash causing a price surge occurred with Monero earlier this year. On August 28, CCN.com reported that Monero price surpassed the $150 mark for the first time in its history subsequent to the integration of Monero by Bithumb. Building on the momentum created by Bithumb, Monero climbed the rankings to become the ninth largest cryptocurrency in the market.

But, it seems as if traders and investors are trying to take advantage of the integration of Bithumb and other major trading platforms to generate profits based on insider trading. The recent case of ZCash insider trading could very possibly lead to federal investigations by the South Korean government. The country’s central bank and financial regulators have dealt with fraudulent activities surrounding cryptocurrency trading in the past and that could also negatively affect Bithumb as a licensed South Korean financial service provider.

Featured image from Shutterstock.