South Korean cryptocurrency exchanges Upbit and Bithumb announced decisions affecting four altcoins on October 2. Upbit announced plans to list Dolphin (POD) across three trading markets, while Bithumb said it would discontinue trading support for D and HOOK.
The trading caution designation on The Sandbox’s SAND token was also lifted that day. While POD gained new trading pairs, the reviews of SAND and the assessments of D and HOOK produced different outcomes.
Upbit announces three trading pairs for POD
Upbit announced that it would list Dolphin’s POD token in its South Korean won, Bitcoin and Tether markets. The announcement scheduled the launch of POD/KRW, POD/BTC and POD/USDT trading for October 2 at 4:00 p.m. Korean Standard Time, or 7:00 a.m. UTC.
According to the listing details, the exchange supports POD deposits and withdrawals through the Base network. Deposit and withdrawal services were scheduled to open within two hours of the announcement. Users therefore need to check the supported network when transferring tokens.
Dolphin is a DePIN project that aims to distribute AI inference tasks by bringing together unused GPU resources. The network groups nodes running the same AI model into pools and directs user requests to available resources.
The project’s user-facing products include a web chat service and Telegram bots. POD serves staking and bonding functions within the network. Upbit’s listing also provides direct access to POD trading against the Korean won.
Trading caution designation lifted for SAND
The October 2 development concerning SAND was the removal of its existing trading caution designation. In its official announcement, Bithumb said it had concluded that the reasons behind the designation had been resolved.
The exchange said the decision would take effect on October 2. It also scheduled the resumption of SAND deposits and withdrawals for 4:00 p.m. Korean Standard Time that day, or 7:00 a.m. UTC.
Bithumb had placed SAND under trading caution on August 24 following a security incident. Its announcement at the time cited security issues affecting the relevant wallet or distributed ledger infrastructure whose causes remained unexplained or unresolved.
The latest decision therefore followed the review process that began in August. Bithumb had previously said it planned to announce its next assessment between September 28 and October 2.
Upbit also lifted its trading caution designation for SAND. The exchange reviewed documents submitted by the project team on the security incident and its subsequent response, concluding that the reasons for the designation had been resolved. The decision covers the SAND/KRW and SAND/BTC markets.
Bithumb to end D and HOOK trading on November 2
Bithumb announced that it would delist D and Hooked Protocol (HOOK). The exchange said the explanations submitted by the project teams were insufficient to resolve the issues that had prompted the earlier trading caution designation.
According to the announcement, Bithumb assessed the projects’ disclosures, token utility and business performance together. It concluded that neither asset met the criteria required to maintain trading support.
The exchange had placed D and HOOK under trading caution on September 18. Its initial assessment highlighted shortcomings in token utility and the projects’ business performance. Bithumb also announced at the time that it would suspend deposits.
Under the new schedule, trading will end on November 2, 2026, at 3:00 p.m. Korean Standard Time, or 6:00 a.m. UTC. Withdrawal support will end at the same time on December 2, 2026. HOOK and D were both trading lower at the time of writing.
Bithumb will also disable API trading and cancel outstanding orders when trading support ends. The exchange asked users planning to transfer their assets to another platform or a personal wallet to complete address registration in advance, adding that the announced schedule could change.
