Singapore suspends crypto exchange Bitget's license

Bitget reportedly loses license after it promoted Army Coin, named after the group’s ‘BTS army’ followers. Singapore’s financial regulator has reportedly suspended Bitget, a crypto exchange that is mired in a row involving South Korea’s biggest boyband, BTS.

Bitget lost the Singapore license following the controversial listing of a new K-Pop-related cryptocurrency called Army Coin. However, the crypto exchange still claims to have licenses in other jurisdictions such as Australia, Canada, and the United States.

According to a Financial Times report on Sunday, Bitget was suspended after it got into a high-profile dispute for promoting the digital currency Army Coin, which is named after the band’s followers, who are known as the BTS army.

In October, the platform was threatened with legal action by the BTS management company, Hybe Corporation, for promoting Army Coin to traders using an unauthorised image of the band and distributing what it said was false information that the coin was made for BTS and intended to maximise its profits.

Founded in Singapore in 2018, Bitget claims to have over 1.5 million registered users worldwide, and after their most recent Series B funding is valued at US$1 Billion.