Binance Korea announced to shut down its operation. In a notice published Thursday, Binance Korea said it is difficult to operate because of tight liquidity and low transaction volumes. The crypto exchange closure comes just eight months after the exchange’s launch in April 2020. Binance Korea was leveraging the functionalities of Binance, such as its liquidity and order matching engine. But according to a forthcoming law in South Korea, one crypto exchange cannot share its order books with another exchange. Bitcoin casino like services have also increased this year amid the ongoing pandemic.
The new law would make it difficult for the crypto exchange to operate.
According to the forthcoming law, “It is forbidden to allow customers to trade virtual assets with customers of other virtual asset operators through partnerships with other virtual asset operators.” It could get implemented earlier as well, per local reports. However, Binance Korea did not directly cite the law as a reason for the closure but said, “it is difficult to provide smooth transaction liquidity.” Deposits on the crypto exchange are closing Thursday, trading is halting on January 8, and withdrawals are getting disabled on January 29, 2021, per the notice.
Binance had acquired Korean fintech company BxB to launch Binance Korea.
Binance Korea also noted that its Android mobile app available in the beta version is also shutting down next month. The crypto exchange provided trading pairs in Binance KRW (BKRW), the exchange’s native stablecoin backed by Korean won (KRW). The supported coins included bitcoin, ether, and BNB, among others. The crypto exchange giant had acquired Korean fintech company BxB to launch Binance Korea. Binance Korea CEO Jiho Kang said: “We plan to reassess our strategies based on the current market situation.” He added that the crypto exchange would aim to “find a balance between providing robust services and offerings to users while ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements.”
