Upbit Flags Sophon With Warning and Deposit Freeze as Binance Prepares to Drop Seven USDC Pairs

Upbit Flags Sophon With Warning and Deposit Freeze as Binance Prepares to Drop Seven USDC Pairs

South Korea’s largest crypto exchange has placed Sophon (SOPH) under an investment-caution warning and suspended deposits, while Binance separately scheduled seven USDC spot pairs for removal later this week — a double dose of scrutiny that puts two very different delisting mechanisms in the spotlight and leaves holders of the affected tokens with distinct timelines to watch.

Upbit designated SOPH as a trading-caution asset at 3:00 p.m. Korea Standard Time on Sept. 22, covering the SOPH/KRW, SOPH/BTC and SOPH/USDT markets. Deposits were blocked when the notice was published, while existing spot markets remain available during the assessment. The exchange said its review found “numerous deficiencies” and a “potential for user harm,” citing shortcomings involving disclosure, changes to the token’s circulation plan and the procedures used to make those changes.

What the SOPH warning actually means

Upbit’s warning period runs from Sept. 22 through the second week of October, which the exchange defined as Oct. 12–16. During that window, Upbit will assess whether the concerns behind the designation have been addressed. Three outcomes remain possible under its published process: the exchange can lift the warning, extend the review period, or terminate trading support entirely. Upbit said a final delisting decision could follow if the reasons for the warning are not fully resolved.

Deposits sent after the 3:00 p.m. KST cutoff will not be credited normally and are subject to return, according to the notice. Deposit-return processing is suspended while deposit support remains closed and would resume sequentially once the service becomes available.

The warning focuses heavily on information supplied to investors. Upbit said its assessment considered whether material information had been disclosed on time through appropriate electronic channels, the scale of changes to SOPH’s circulation plan, and whether the procedures governing such changes were sufficiently transparent and reasonable. The exchange’s post-listing framework also weighs project circumstances, technology, technical support and trading conditions — and the process allows for rehabilitation. In July, Upbit removed a warning after reviewing the TAIKO security incident and the project’s remediation measures, resuming deposits once it determined the underlying issues had been resolved.

Upbit is not alone. CoinNess reported on Sept. 22 that Bithumb had placed SOPH on a warning list over similar concerns involving disclosures, circulation-plan changes and the surrounding procedures. That gives the token a second concurrent review on a second South Korean exchange, though each platform controls its own trading-support decisions.

SOPH has already gone through significant infrastructure changes during 2026. Bithumb resumed SOPH transfers on July 28 after moving its supported deposits and withdrawals from the Sophon network to Ethereum, dropping support for the original network. Upbit temporarily halted SOPH deposits and withdrawals for another network transition beginning Sept. 8 and resumed them Sept. 11. The Sept. 22 warning does not state that either migration caused its concerns about token circulation, and the two matters should not be conflated. Binance had also placed SOPH under closer review in its August Monitoring Tag assessment of five tokens, without giving an asset-specific reason.

Upbit’s market data showed SOPH/KRW near 6.01 won during Sept. 22 trading, down 1.64% over 24 hours at the captured reading, having traded between 5.87 won and 6.11 won over that period. The data do not establish that the warning caused the move.

Binance’s seven-pair removal is not a token delisting

Binance’s parallel action operates differently. The exchange announced that AIXBT/USDC, DOLO/USDC, ENJ/USDC, HUMA/USDC, SXT/USDC, TNSR/USDC and TURTLE/USDC will stop trading at 03:00 UTC on Sept. 25, citing factors including “poor liquidity and trading volume.” Crucially, this is a removal of individual quote pairs after a regular market review — not a delisting of AIXBT, DOLO, ENJ, HUMA, SXT, TNSR or TURTLE. When trading ends, users can continue buying or selling the underlying assets through other Binance spot markets where available, and USDC itself remains fully supported as a Binance asset.

Spot Trading Bot services attached to the seven markets will stop at the same time, and Binance advised customers to disable or cancel affected bots before the cutoff. The exchange did not provide volume thresholds or pair-specific data explaining why each market was selected.

Several of the affected markets were already curtailed. Binance removed AIXBT/USDC, SXT/USDC, TNSR/USDC and TURTLE/USDC from both cross and isolated margin trading on Sept. 3. BREV/USDC was part of that earlier margin action but is not in the Sept. 25 spot announcement, while DOLO/USDC, ENJ/USDC and HUMA/USDC appear in the new spot notice but were not in the Sept. 3 margin removal. The procedure repeats a pattern from Sept. 18, when Binance removed four USDC spot pairs — BREV, COOKIE, LA and QNT — with each underlying token remaining available through other markets.

For SOPH holders, the next checkpoint is Upbit’s review window of Oct. 12–16, unless the exchange extends it or announces a decision earlier. For the seven Binance markets, spot trading and attached bot services end at 03:00 UTC on Sept. 25, with no deposit or withdrawal suspensions announced for the underlying tokens.

As of the latest market snapshot, Bitcoin trades near 85,958 USD, Ethereum near 2,751 USD and Solana near 117 USD.