Deposit and Withdrawal Suspension
Wallet maintenance · Deposits and withdrawals paused · Transfer suspension
When an exchange pauses sending a coin in (deposits) or out (withdrawals), for wallet maintenance, a network upgrade or a security problem.
Simple explanation
Background: Korean exchanges (Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone and Digital X, formerly Korbit) trade in won, and moving coins in and out is what normally keeps their prices in line with each other and with the rest of the world, so a blocked wallet matters a lot for the kimchi premium.
Each exchange runs a separate wallet for each coin. A suspension means the exchange has paused receiving that coin from other exchanges or personal wallets (deposits), sending it out (withdrawals), or both. It is about crypto transfers, not about moving won in and out of a bank account.
Common reasons are routine wallet or server maintenance; a blockchain upgrade, hard fork, mainnet migration or token swap; network congestion or an outage, such as a chain that stops producing blocks; and security problems such as a hack or a bug. When a coin is delisted, exchanges often keep withdrawals open for a set period after trading ends.
Trading on the exchange usually carries on during a suspension. What stops is the arbitrage that normally closes price gaps between exchanges, because the coins cannot move.
So the price on that exchange can drift away from other exchanges and from overseas prices. With deposits closed, nobody can bring coins in from outside to sell, so the price can stay high and the kimchi premium can jump. With withdrawals closed, nobody can buy cheap and take the coins out, so the price can stay low and a reverse premium can appear. A premium like that may say more about blocked transfers than about Korean demand.
Each exchange decides on its own, so often one is blocked while the others are open. For coins on several networks, only one network may be suspended.
Coins sent while deposits are suspended may not show up until deposits reopen. If the suspension is for a network upgrade or token swap, you may need to file a recovery request, so check the receiving exchange's deposit status and notices before you send.
Maintenance can end within hours, but network or security problems can last days or longer. Exchanges announce reopenings in their notices, and once transfers resume, arbitrage starts again and the price gap between exchanges can close quickly.
CoinGaja checks the deposit and withdrawal status each exchange reports every 5 minutes and marks coins in its tables as "No deposits", "No withdrawals" or "No deposits/withdrawals". The CoinGaja Kimchi Premium Index leaves out coins whose deposits or withdrawals are suspended on Upbit.
Example
Overseas price of Coin X in won ₩1,000
Normally: Exchange A ₩1,010 · Exchange B ₩1,010 → kimchi premium +1.00% on both
Exchange A suspends Coin X deposits (trading continues) → nobody can bring coins in from outside to sell
Buyers pile in on Exchange A and the price climbs to ₩1,150, with no arbitrage to pull it back → kimchi premium = 1,150 ÷ 1,000 − 1 = +15.00%
Exchange B at the same moment: still ₩1,010, kimchi premium +1.00% → a ₩140 gap between the two
The other way round: an exchange with withdrawals suspended stuck at ₩950 → kimchi premium = 950 ÷ 1,000 − 1 = -5.00% (reverse premium)
Once deposits reopen, coins can flow in from elsewhere and the gap can narrow, though not always
※ Example numbers, for illustration only
See it on CoinGaja
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