Leading cryptocurrency exchange Binance said that it is looking at restarting its services in South Korea, 17 months after it stopped serving merchants in the country. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) revealed the company’s intentions to Korean media Mile Economic Daily at the VWTech 2022 event in France.
Binance considers re-entry to South Korea
This is the first time since the company shut down crypto-to-crypto trading platform Binance Korea to local users in January 2021 that CZ has mentioned a possible re-entry into the Korean market.
At the time, Binance said that the move was due to low usage and trading volume. Although the Korean affiliate was leveraging the functionality of its parent company, including its order book and liquidity, such operations (order book sharing) were to be restricted in the country. Therefore, the best option for Binance was to shut down the local exchange.
In addition to shutting down its Korean division, Binance has shut down South Korean language support and removed won trading pairs and payment options on its global platform in compliance with local regulations.
Although Zhao did not specify how Binance intends to fare to the Korean market, the exchange could achieve its goal through mergers and acquisitions (M&A). CZ previously mentioned that the bearish crypto market presents the best opportunity to recruit key talent and acquire startups.
The Binance CEO also commented on the recent Terra Luna failure that affected hundreds of Korean investors. According to him, Terra does not generate “real income”, and people should not confuse “the token’s market cap with their earnings”.
CZ: The bubble bursts, but the technology remains
But despite the bear market, CZ is still optimistic about the crypto industry, particularly in Web 3.0 technologies such as blockchain, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and the metaverse.
“The bubble bursts, but eventually, the technology persists. Like the Internet, in 10 to 15 years, NFTs and blockchain will fully enter our lives, and we ourselves will not use the term,” he said.
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