TokenPost Launches ‘Token Korea Watch’ to Track 450 Projects Amid Rising DeFi Risks

TokenPost has launched a new market-wide monitoring initiative dubbed ‘TOKEN KOREA WATCH,’ aiming to scrutinize more than 450 digital asset projects listed on South Korean exchanges as global crypto markets grapple with a fresh wave of hacks and alleged manipulation schemes.

The campaign comes amid mounting concerns that critical information is not being disclosed quickly enough for investors to assess risk—an issue underscored by a series of high-profile incidents in April that rattled confidence across decentralized finance (DeFi) and spot token markets.

On April 18 UTC, restaking-focused DeFi protocol KelpDAO suffered an estimated $292 million exploit linked to a cross-chain bridge vulnerability. The attack, which investigators attributed to North Korea’s Lazarus Group, reportedly spread across nine DeFi protocols and triggered a rapid contraction in market confidence. TokenPost cited a broader impact of more than $13 billion in DeFi total value locked (TVL) wiped out within 48 hours as liquidity fled and risk premiums re-priced.

The KelpDAO incident followed another major breach earlier in the month. On April 1 UTC, Drift Protocol was hit by a separate exploit valued at roughly $285 million. If both attacks are attributed to the same actor, the combined losses in under three weeks would total about $577 million—another stark reminder of how quickly security failures can cascade through interconnected DeFi infrastructure, particularly where bridges and shared liquidity routes are involved.

Alongside security risks, token-market integrity has also come under renewed scrutiny. TokenPost pointed to the RAVE token issued by RaveDAO, which surged more than 4,500% over a short period before plunging roughly 95% within 24 hours. On-chain investigator ZachXBT alleged that large transfers from a developer-linked wallet to exchanges occurred shortly before the spike, raising suspicions of ‘insider involvement.’ Binance and Bitget have reportedly opened formal inquiries, while blockchain data indicated that about 95% of the token supply was concentrated among a small cluster of wallets—an ownership structure that can amplify both upside squeezes and downside collapses.

TokenPost framed these events around a common denominator: investors often lack timely, decision-useful disclosures when conditions change, whether due to security incidents, token distribution risks, or opaque team activity. While regulators in South Korea are discussing a next phase of the Digital Asset User Protection Act that could impose disclosure requirements on issuers comparable to a securities-style registration statement, TokenPost argued that meaningful protections may lag behind market realities.

‘TOKEN KOREA WATCH’ is designed to bridge that gap through a staged review process. The first phase begins with two baseline checks: whether a project’s team is still active and verifiably present, and whether the project communicates with its investor community in a consistent and accessible way. TokenPost said it will examine items such as the recency of official channel updates, whether Korean-language communication is maintained, and whether teams respond to community questions.

To compile the dataset, TokenPost plans to run official surveys and conduct interviews with the roughly 450 projects listed on domestic exchanges. The scope of the monitoring will then expand to include additional dimensions—development progress, financial transparency, and responsiveness to exchange-related issues—moving beyond team presence and communications into broader operational accountability.

“A project with no real team, or one that doesn’t communicate with investors, is already sending an important signal,” TokenPost CEO Jiho Kim said, describing the first-phase checks as the campaign’s starting point. Projects that respond will be covered either via favorable reporting or articles calling for improvements depending on the findings, while non-responding projects will also be included in the results on the grounds that ‘non-response’ itself can be material for investor judgment.

TokenPost said the findings will be published in three formats: individual project articles, aggregated reports, and a dedicated data dashboard intended to help readers track patterns across the domestic listing universe. Kim added that documenting current conditions before mandatory disclosure frameworks take effect is part of the media’s role, positioning ‘TOKEN KOREA WATCH’ as an attempt to set a transparency benchmark for South Korea’s digital asset market.

Participation and inquiries related to the campaign will be handled through TokenPost’s newsroom, the outlet said.