The price of the ZKsync token on the South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Upbit surged by approximately 1000% within three hours, after which it returned to normal levels. The South Korean regulator has initiated an investigation into possible market manipulation.
This is reported by Business • Media
Reasons for the Anomalous Price Surge of ZKsync
The Financial Supervisory Service of South Korea (FSS) has launched an investigation following a sharp increase in the price of ZKsync (ZK) on the Upbit exchange from January 31 to February 1, 2026. Within three hours, the token’s price increased nearly tenfold, after which it fell just as rapidly. Local media noted that the price spike coincided with scheduled maintenance on the Upbit platform.
“In the ZK/KRW pair, the price increase was about 1000%, while in the ZK/USDT pair, it exceeded 2000%.”
According to the FSS’s virtual asset investigation department, the agency is already gathering necessary documents and actively monitoring the situation. If signs of violations are found, the investigation may be expanded into a full-scale inquiry.
The cryptocurrency community believes that such a surge may have been caused by artificial manipulation: during the technical work, someone might have placed large buy orders, creating the illusion of high demand, and then quickly sold the assets for profit. This is a classic “pump-and-dump” scheme.
Legal Assessment and Actions by the Regulator
Decent Law attorney Jin Hyun Soo stated that such actions may fall under Article 10 of South Korea’s Cryptocurrency User Protection Act, which prohibits price manipulation and collusion in trading. If guilt is proven, offenders could face imprisonment for over a year or fines 3–5 times greater than the profits gained. If the amount of illegal enrichment exceeds 500 million Korean won, the penalties could be even harsher.
The FSS emphasized that when such market anomalies are detected, the monitoring service promptly requests documents from the exchange. If evidence of manipulation is found, an official investigation will be launched.
It was previously reported that the South Korean government would equate the responsibilities of cryptocurrency exchanges to those of banks.