South Korea’s top 5 cryptocurrency exchanges have launched Digital Asset eXchange Alliance (DAXA) to jointly work on enhancing investor protections against volatility and frauds.

Upbit, Bithumb, Coineone, Korbit, and Gopax – the top 5 largest crypto exchanges in Korea, formed the alliance d signed a memorandum of understanding on drawing up shared guidelines on investor protection.

The move is a follow-up to their pledge on voluntary actions to minimize investor losses in volatile market in response to call for a more responsible private-sector role from Financial Supervisory Service Governor Lee Bok-hyun last week

The new chief in a meeting with the governing party and industry representatives argued for greater disciplinary role from the private sector against the complex and unpredictable crypto market conditions.

Collaborated vigilance based on faster communication among exchanges came in need after the meltdown of the Korean-founded Luna and its sister stablecoin TerraUSD. The two stablecoins collapsed suddenly in May and caused havoc on in domestic and overseas crypto markets.

The crypto exchanges aim to prevent such crisis through DAXA and self-regulatory measures.

The alliance with be comprised of four divisions on transactions support, market activity monitoring, compliance monitoring, and training.

The transactions support team will lead the project on creating a set of guidelines on digital coin listing and delisting, which would advise exchange operators on basic criteria to consider before deciding to add or remove a digital coin to minimize market confusion and protect investors.

The market monitoring team is responsible for checking any irregular activities, such as money laundering, as well as detecting threats.

DAXA will operate as a permanent organization with an independent office. Its member crypto exchanges elected Lee Seok-woo, head of Upbit, as the first president of the alliance. Lee will serve for one year.

By Myung Ji-ye, Kim Hye-soon and Cho Jeehyun

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