Binance Is Set For the South Korean Market
Binance is the largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume in the world. Business Korea reported on Tuesday that the exchange is eyeing the South Korean market, for expansion.
The news outlet quoted CEO Chanpeng Zhao, saying during his keynote speech at the Blockchain Partners Summit in Seoul on July 21 and 22, that: “He stressed the importance of the South Korean market, saying that his company would enrich its community in the market.”
The publication said that the company has “hired Koreans as a local marketing director and a Binance Lab director, which is a social impact fund.”
In August 2017, Binance added the Korean language to its website. The company wrote at that time, “Now, our customers from Korea can use our website in their native language.”
The Chinese government shut down exchanges in China the following month. Local traders had no other choice than to move to exchanges elsewhere, including South Kore: what a perfect timing for Binance, which also moved its operations out of China at the same period.
Reports reveal that South Korea has approximately 100 crypto exchanges. 31 of them are members of the Korean Blockchain Industry Association. Four only among them hold the majority of the share of crypto trading in the country.
Bithumb and Upbit, the Kakao-backed exchange, are the largest in the country (even though Upbit is affiliated to the US exchange Bittrex).
Coinmarketcap was showing Upbit had a 24-hour trading volume of $780,019,012 while Bithumb has $601,046,530, at the time of writing.
Coinone and Jorbit are the other two large Korean exchanges.
“The number of South Korean Binance users is not that large yet. Still, it is one of the most favorite foreign cryptocurrency exchanges for South Korean traders,” Business Korea detailed. Earlier this year, the investor wrote: “contrary to widespread speculation that Korean users account for a significant part of the Binance user-base, Zhao told reporters that they make up only about 1 percent and are the 10th largest group in terms of nationality.”
Zhao said in an interview with Soso Lab this month that the main reason for Binance increasing popularity in South Korea was due to Korean exchanges listing only a limited number of coins. He said, “If you want to trade newer coins then Binance is a good choice. We got lucky in that sense.” Coinmarketcap revealed that Binance currently lists 376 coins while Upbit has 268 and Bithumb has 37.
Zhao told the media outlet: “We do have a lot of users, what we call Binancians, in Korea…I think Korea is a hot market.”
