Samsung, the South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate, have set their sights to create a cryptocurrency exchange and plan to set up a digital asset exchange in the first half of 2023.
It will be done through the tech giant’s investment firm, Samsung Securities.
According to reports out of South Korea’s local media, Samsung is not the only Korean corporation that is planning to venture into the cryptocurrency space. Over six other major companies have plans to have a cryptocurrency trading platform in 2023.
These entities, which deal directly with securities, are reportedly working together with South Korean financial bodies to obtain a licence to perform the functions of an exchange. Discussions are reported to already be in their final stages.
“Currently, discussions necessary for the establishment are being finalised,” an official from one of the companies applying for licensing told NewsPim.
Earlier this month, Samsung Securities was one of three financial institutions in South Korea to partner with the country’s largest exchange, Bithumb. The tie-up means Samsung Securities customers can check the status of crypto investments through Samsung’s own app.
Samsung Securities was also the first to launch a global blockchain exchange-traded fund (ETF) in Asia.
The plans of those Korean corporations fall in line with the pro-cryptocurrency and digital asset stance of the nation’s newly elected President, Yoon Suk-yeol. Earlier in 2022, he promised to increase the minimum threshold for paying capital gains tax on profits from digital asset investments and thus, create a better environment for domestic investors.
It’s also a good time for Samsung to launch a digital assets exchange since the former South Korean administration shut down a heap of platforms in September of 2021 through a regulatory law, which drastically increased the requirements and obligations necessary to open such a service in the country. Samsung could ultimately fill this very void left by the sudden disappearance of all these corporations.
Last year, South Korea’s top financial regulator, the FIU, instructed all local digital asset platforms to comply with its anti-money laundering (AML) rules and register with the watchdog. More than 60 firms did not manage to meet those requirements and shut their operations in September 2021.
The four major exchanges (Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, and Korbit) successfully completed the necessary steps and continued providing services to Korean users for digital assets.
Exciting times as more institutions flock to the digital asset space.
