Upbit puts MultiversX EGLD on trading caution through late October after VM exploit
By Crypto Wire
September 21, 2026
South Korea’s Upbit designated MultiversX’s EGLD for trading caution on September 21, putting the token under a formal review window that runs into late October after the network’s weekend VM-level atomicity incident forced mainnet progression to stop. CryptoCompass’s same-day wrap of Upbit’s notice says the exchange flagged EGLD/KRW, EGLD/BTC, and EGLD/USDT as caution markets because an unresolved blockchain security incident could have caused, or could still cause, user losses.
Upbit had already suspended EGLD deposits and withdrawals at 5:47 p.m. KST on September 19. The exchange said that when transfers eventually resume, withdrawals will return first, while deposit support will need a separate announcement after the trading-caution review begins. Deposits attempted after the caution notice cannot be credited normally and fall under Upbit’s return process.
The designation does not immediately delist EGLD. Under Upbit’s trading-support termination policy, the exchange will review whether the reasons behind the caution notice are fully resolved before lifting the warning, extending the review, or ending trading support. CryptoCompass reports the current review period runs from September 21 through the fourth week of October, with October 19–23 cited as the expected decision window, and notes Upbit can extend the probe if needed.
Upbit cited Article 17(1)(e) of South Korea’s Virtual Asset User Protection Act Enforcement Decree, tying the move to whether a security incident affecting a wallet, distributed ledger, or related infrastructure used to issue, transfer, or store virtual assets remained unexplained or unresolved. That is a policy-desk fact as much as a Rug Room one: exchange caution labels are now part of the MultiversX incident’s liquidity map.
The chain-side backdrop is the attempted exploit of a virtual-machine-level atomicity issue that MultiversX confirmed after first disclosing a potential mainnet problem on September 19. Invalid state changes prompted developers to stop network progression while a repair was prepared for shadow-fork testing. SlowMist recorded the event as an attempted VM-level atomicity exploit and did not list a confirmed loss amount in the public tracker cited by CryptoCompass.
Other venues tightened in parallel. Bithumb suspended EGLD deposits and withdrawals on September 19 after block production stopped, saying transfers would stay down until network stability was confirmed. Kraken placed EGLD pairs into cancel-only mode, allowing order cancels while blocking new trades, with deposits and withdrawals unavailable. Coinbase reported delayed EGLD sends and receives beginning September 19 while buying, selling, and fiat rails stayed up.
MultiversX told users not to submit or rebroadcast transactions and advised against moving EGLD or ESDT through exchange deposit and withdrawal routes or cross-chain bridges until an official all-clear. Prior 8bitcrypto coverage already logged the mainnet halt and the shadow-fork recovery path; today’s Upbit caution is the Korea-facing exchange-policy escalation of that same incident, not a second on-chain exploit.
Market tape moved with the restrictions. CoinGecko figures cited by CryptoCompass show EGLD closing at $4.14 on September 18, then $3.87 on September 19 and $3.78 on September 20 — roughly an 8.7% drop from the September 18 close — while volume rose to about $10.18 million on September 20 from roughly $3.35 million on September 18. Those prints sit beside the incident and transfer freezes; they do not by themselves prove the exploit attempt caused every tick of the decline.
Orange County desks should treat Upbit’s October decision window as the practical calendar item. A caution label can lift, extend, or harden into trading-support termination if the exchange decides MultiversX’s security concerns are not fully resolved. Until MultiversX publishes its full technical incident report and restarts coordinated transfer rails, EGLD liquidity on major Korean and global venues remains policy-constrained as much as protocol-constrained.
Primary sourcing for the caution pairs, review window, decree citation, and exchange comparisons is the September 21 CryptoCompass report of Upbit’s notice. Readers should verify live deposit, withdrawal, and trading status on each venue before assuming any rail has reopened.
Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It does not constitute financial, investment, legal, or trading advice. The NFT market is highly volatile, and past performance is not indicative of future results. Readers should conduct their own research and consult qualified professionals before making any decisions related to digital assets. The cover image for this article may have been created using artificial intelligence (AI).
