SEOUL, Sept. 10 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea will remove cryptocurrency trading and brokerage from its list of industries barred from receiving venture business status, signaling a shift in how the government views the digital asset sector. The Ministry of SMEs and Startups said Tuesday that the Cabinet approved revisions to the Enforcement Decree of the [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 8 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s central bank, in coordination with the government and the country’s largest lenders, is preparing to test the use of central bank digital currency (CBDC) for distributing public subsidies, a move officials say could curb misuse and improve accountability. According to financial industry sources, the six major banks [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 26 (Korea Bizwire) — A new breed of company, built on hoarding cryptocurrencies as core assets, is reshaping stock markets from the United States to Japan — and now South Korea. But the meteoric rise of these so-called Crypto Treasury Companies (CTCs) has triggered debate over whether they represent innovative investment vehicles or dangerous [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 21 (Korea Bizwire) — The Bank of Korea (BOK) on Wednesday sounded the alarm over the rapid spread of dollar-pegged stablecoins, warning lawmakers that the trend poses risks to monetary sovereignty and financial stability. In a written response submitted to Rep. Park Sung-hoon of the People Power Party, the central bank urged swift [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 13 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean cryptocurrency exchange operator Dunamu Inc. said Wednesday it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with a Vietnamese bank to assist the establishment of a cryptocurrency exchange in the Southeast Asian country. The deal with Military Commercial Joint Stock Bank, a financial institution under Vietnam’s defense ministry, [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 11 (Korea Bizwire) — Hana Bank, a major commercial bank in South Korea, has partnered with Circle, which manages USDC, a cryptocurrency stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar, in a bid to explore stablecoin business opportunities, officials said Monday. The partnership stems from a comprehensive business agreement signed between the two companies in [...]
SEOUL, July 25 (Korea Bizwire) — As discussions intensify around the adoption of Korean won-based stablecoins, credit card companies in South Korea are scrambling to respond, concerned about potential disruption to their traditional role in the payments ecosystem. According to financial industry sources on Thursday, the Credit Finance Association and eight major credit card companies [...]
SEOUL, July 14 (Korea Bizwire) — Bitcoin prices hit an all-time high on a South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Monday, in line with global rallies fueled by optimism over long-awaited policy support for the industry. Bitcoin had been trading at 165.9 million won (US$120,113) per unit as of around 3:40 p.m. on the local crypto exchange [...]
SEOUL, June 30 (Korea Bizwire) — The Bank of Korea (BOK) has put the second phase of its central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot program on hold, signaling mounting pressure from commercial banks and a shifting digital finance landscape increasingly shaped by stablecoin developments. The abrupt pause, disclosed in a virtual meeting with participating banks [...]
SEOUL, June 26 (Korea Bizwire) — Naver Pay, a mobile payment service operated by internet giant Naver Corp., said Thursday it is ready to take a leading role in South Korea’s potential won-based stablecoin market, leveraging its extensive digital finance and wallet infrastructure. “There have been active discussions over the past two weeks, but the [...]