South Korea Explores Partnership With Binance To Establish New Crypto Exchange

South Korea plans to create a new crypto exchange with Binance. (Photo; Doc. Unsplash)

JAKARTA - The former CEO of Samsung, Lee Kun-hee, at the time of his retirement, spoke about the importance of blockchain technology. According to recent reports, Binance is collaborating with the Honorary Chairman of Kolon, Lee Woong-Yeol, for a new virtual asset exchange in South Korea.

According to a Coinspeaker report, Lee plans to introduce a joint venture with Binance to create an exchange for the government and financial authorities. Local blockchain companies targeting logistics and digital asset issuers also helped Lee set up the exchange.

Lee has been in talks with global and local virtual asset and blockchain companies for over three years to start his new project. If discussions on the Binance deal are successful, then the domestic digital asset exchange could witness a massive revolution and compete with Upbit which currently controls the South Korean market share.

Binance recently returned to the South Korean market after a two-year hiatus with the acquisition of Gopax. In January this year, Binance announced that they are targeting a 41 percent stake in Gopax.

However, the share percentage is still unknown and the exchange does not comment on this. It is part of the Industrial Recovery Initiative, a USD 1 billion investment project that Binance announced.

However, amidst this situation, Streami Inc, the parent company of Gopax, is one of Genesis' biggest creditors which recently filed for bankruptcy. Meanwhile, Digital Currency Group (DCG) is the second largest shareholder in Gopax.

In trying to acquire bankrupt crypto company Voyager, Binance.US has also struggled and faced opposition from regulators. Binance also ran into difficulties when regulators scrutinized and criticized its stablecoin issuer, Paxos.