Cryptocurrency exchange OKX has shut down its DeFi service as it faces regulatory pressure from European regulators. This comes after it was reported that hackers exchanged the proceeds of a $1.5 billion cyber attack on Bybit through OKX’s Web3 service. Regulators said that the hackers were from North Korea and about $100 million was sent to the exchange’s decentralized trading aggregator.
This week, OKX said it had suspended its DEX aggregator services on Monday because the company had consulted with regulators. The crypto exchange explained that this measure was taken to enable enhancements to the level of security to avoid abuse. This action was taken in response to a Bloomberg News report that stated that European regulators have started to look into OKX’s Web3 service and the part it has played in criminal activities.
OKX is regulated by the European Union’s new MiCA markets, which are designed to increase market transparency and security in the crypto asset market. The ESMA’s Digital Finance Standing Committee has recently considered the exchange’s compliance with the rules, with particular emphasis on the use of decentralized applications for money laundering.
The crypto exchange claims to provide its Web3 platform as a decentralized financial system with your assets, in your control and free to use multiple blockchain networks. The DEX aggregator is a key component of this ecosystem for OKX, which enables the instant reconfiguration of assets between various exchanges.
Co-founded in 2017 and based in Seychelles, OKX is one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges with more than 300 cryptocurrencies including BTC and ETH available for trading by July. By this time, the company had registered 53 million wallets on its Web3 platform, which supports more than 100 blockchains.
