DAXA

Simple explanation

Background: Korean investors mostly meet DAXA in exchange notices: when several Korean exchanges put the same coin under an investment warning or delist it on the same day, the decision has usually gone through DAXA.

DAXA, the Digital Asset eXchange Alliance, was launched on 22 June 2022 by the five exchanges that trade in won: Upbit (run by Dunamu), Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit and Gopax (run by Streami). It grew out of the Terra-Luna collapse of May 2022, as a way for the exchanges to build investor protections together. Korbit, after joining the Mirae Asset group, changed its company and exchange name to Digital X in 2026. DAXA is not a government body but a self-regulatory group the exchanges set up themselves, so it has no legal power to punish anyone or levy fines.

Listing standards came first. Since 2022 the members have applied a common listing-review guideline, and they published its main items: risks built into a token's design, whether it is a security, the risk of money laundering, and rules for outside experts on review panels. Since 19 July 2024, when the Virtual Asset User Protection Act took effect, Korean exchanges have applied "best practices for trading support" drawn up together with DAXA. They examine the issuer's credibility, user protection, technology and security, and legal compliance; coins already trading are re-reviewed regularly, and those that fall short are put under an investment warning and then considered for delisting. Taking money or other benefits in return for a listing is banned.

The members also act together on troubled coins. When a coin hits a hack, a missing disclosure or far more tokens in circulation than planned, the exchanges trading it often discuss it through DAXA, put it under a warning on the same day and announce the verdict together. WEMIX, for example, was delisted in 2022 over its circulating supply and later relisted; after a hack in February 2025 that was disclosed late, it was put under a warning again and its won-market trading ended that June, and a court rejected the issuer's request to halt the delisting. Each exchange still posts its own notice and acts on its own, so verdicts and dates can differ.

DAXA also deals with market alerts. When a coin's price swings sharply in a short time, its trading volume or deposits surge, its Korean price drifts far from overseas prices, or trading is concentrated in a few accounts, the exchange puts a "caution" alert on it. In January 2026, under DAXA guidelines worked out with regulators, the alert was split into three levels, caution, warning and danger, so users can tell how serious the unusual trading is. Timing and display differ a little by exchange. An investment warning is a review of whether to keep a coin listed; a market alert is a short-term warning that trading has overheated.

It has other jobs too. Since 5 September 2025 it has run the guidelines for exchanges' coin-lending services as self-regulation: no lending beyond the collateral's value (no leverage), lending fees capped at 20% a year, and an online DAXA course and suitability test for first-time borrowers. Its website publishes comparisons of members' deposit-fee rates, trading and transfer fees, which coins each member supports, disclosures of coin sales by virtual asset businesses and the results of exchange balance reconciliations, and it takes tips about unregistered operators.

It has limits. Self-regulation carries little legal force, and the member exchanges both write the standards and are bound by them, so critics say the reasons behind decisions and the discussions that lead to them are not disclosed enough. Because the phase-two Digital Asset Basic Act had not passed the National Assembly as of October 2026, listings and delistings are still decided by DAXA's shared standards and each exchange's own rules.

It matters for the kimchi premium. When a warning closes deposits, nobody can bring the coin in from abroad, so the Korean price moves on its own and the premium can blow out. Alerts on coins trading far from overseas prices are worth checking alongside the premium as well. CoinGaja's Listings and delistings page shows investment warnings, read from the exchanges' APIs for Upbit and Bithumb and from notices for Coinone and Digital X, together with the exchanges' short-term caution alerts, and the Exchange notices page sorts listing, delisting and warning notices into their own categories.

Example

※ Example numbers, for illustration only

See it on CoinGaja

• 🗓️ Listings and delistings›
• 📢 Exchange notices›
• 🚦 Deposit and withdrawal suspensions by exchange›

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