Crypto traders in South Korea could soon have direct access to Binance’s trading platform. According to a speculative report circulating in the Korean media, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world (by trading volume) is preparing to tap in on South Korea’s booming digital asset market by setting up a regional office in the country.
Note that Binance is yet to confirm the authenticity of these reports.
The Plan
Reports about Binance’s (rumored) imminent plans of launching a South Korean unit started surfacing shortly after the recently conducted Blockchain Partners Summit in Seoul.
During his keynote speech at the event, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao made a number of remarks that gave away the impression that South Korea could be next in the exchange’s global expansion roadmap. For example, Zhao categorically spoke about the significance of the country’s homegrown crypto market. Additionally, he also stretched how Binance has all the will and means to enrich the local crypto community.
Worth mentioning here is that it’s been a while since Binance started the process of entering the South Korean market. Presumably, the efforts started even before the exchange added the Korean language to its website last year in August. The purported expansion plan makes sense too — especially considering that Binance is far from exerting any significant influence over Korean crypto investors, which leaves a lot of untapped opportunities for the exchange to boost its trading volume further.
Binance Reacts
While Binance still has not officially declined the rumors about its expansion plans, the exchange seems to be playing down the hype on its end. According to one publication, a Binance representative has issued a statement saying that it was still waiting for Korean policymakers to finalize a regulatory framework before going ahead with the Korean expansion roadmap. The statement reads:
“Currently we have no office in Korea and whether Binance will enter Korea in the future depends on progress in Korean policy.”
Meanwhile, on a related note, South Korea’s lawmakers are expediting the process of introducing new regulations to govern cryptocurrencies and ICOs. As reported by Blokt last week, the new policy will add blockchain and cryptocurrencies to the Korea Standard Industry Classification (KSIC) with three primary categories and 10 subcategories. Per this new policy, digital currency exchanges like Binance will be categorized as “encryption asset brokerages.”