Binance Eyes South Korea Re-Entry 17 Months After Exit

Leading cryptocurrency exchange Binance said it is considering relaunching its services in South Korea 17 months after the platform stopped serving traders in the country. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) revealed the company’s intentions to Korean media Maeil Economic Daily at the VivaTech 2022 event in France.

Binance Considers South Korea Re-entry

This is the first time CZ has mentioned a possible re-entry into the Korean market since the company shut down Binance Korea, a crypto-to-crypto trading platform for local users, in January 2021.

At the time, Binance said the move was due to low usage and transaction volumes. Although the Korean affiliate was leveraging the functionalities of its parent company, including its order books and liquidity, such operations (order book sharing) were about to be banned in the country. Hence, the best option for Binance was to shut down the local exchange.

Aside from closing its Korean division, Binance discontinued 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 reveal precisely how Binance intends to renter the Korean market, the exchange could achieve its goal through merger and acquisition (M&A). CZ had previously mentioned that the bearish crypto market presents the best opportunity for recruiting key talent and acquiring startups.

The Binance CEO also commented on the recent Terra LUNA fiasco that affected hundreds of Korean investors. According to him, Terra did not generate an “actual income,” and people should not confuse the “market value of tokens with their earnings.”

CZ: Bubble Bursts, But Tech Remains

But despite the bear market, CZ is still optimistic about the crypto industry, especially in web 3.0 technologies such as blockchain, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and the metaverse.

“The bubble bursts, but eventually, the technology remains. Just like the Internet, in 10 to 15 years, NFTs and blockchains will completely enter our lives, and we will not use the term itself,” he said.