A slew of South Korean Banks have started to offer digital asset custody services. And the latest bank to join this ‘suite’ is the Koori bank.
According to a report by Korean Economic Daily dated July 11, Woori Financial Group has become the latest South Korean financial institution to offer crypto custody services. The bank will partner with a fintech solution firm Coinplug for establishing a digital custody joint venture. The name of the project is D-Custody. Coinplug is going to be the larger shareholder of the project.
Currently, Korean legislation doesn’t allow domestic entities to access cryptocurrency exchange services. Only country’s banks can enter the market via joint ventures of share investments.
Many major Korean financial institutions are setting up joint ventures with partial ownership to avert this anomaly to gain a foothold in the industry. As a matter of fact, since August 2020, all the major banks of South Korea excluding one had stated their intention of launching crypto custody services. These banks were:
- Kookmin Bank
- Shinhan Bank
- NH Nonghyup Bank
- Woori Bank
Kookmin, the biggest financial institution in the country, filed for a trademark application regarding its custody service in March 2020. In addition, Nonghyup Band had launched a blockchain financial services consortium in June 2020. Most recently, Shinhan Bank announced its strategic investment in a crypto custody consortium in January 2021. The crypto custody is Korea Digital Asset Trust backed by major local exchange Korbit.
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