TL;DR Breakdown
- Binance Korea is set to shutdown the platform in January 2021.
- Exchange cites low trading volume as the primary factor
- Binance korea to undergo hard shutdown on January 29 2021.
Binance Korea is set to cease local operations despite being launched less than a year ago. In a recent announcement, the exchange cited low trade volume as a reason for shutting down the Korean platform.
Binance Korea to cease operations
According to the announcement on Binance’s official website, the exchange cites low trading volume as the primary reason behind the recent decision. Binance Korea stated that the platform has observed declining trade volume and low liquidity for its Korean Won-pegged stablecoin BKRW. The exchange claimed that the stablecoin had limited trading pairs that decreased the liquidity for users.
Binance KR has also revealed a shutdown schedule for the exchange beginning with the closure of BKRW charge up, and new registrations at Binance Korea. Furthermore, the date for the closure of all trading services at Binance KR is set on 10th January. Binance KR is expected to conduct a hard shutdown on 29th January 2021, delisting all BKRW trading pairs.
As Cryptopolitan previously reported, the Malta-based cryptocurrency exchange platform Binance announced the launch of its South Korean platform back in March. Binance had also confirmed the rumours surrounding its expansion plans into the country with its BXB acquisition.
Low trade volume
Binance KR was not the only exchange to suffer from a low trading volume in Korea. The broad cryptocurrency market in Korea experienced a drought as an August report suggested that a majority of local cryptocurrency exchanges risked bankruptcy due to the low trade volumes.
Furthermore, the country’s harsh crypto regulations have caused blockchain-related companies to pursue listings on overseas exchanges. This further deteriorates the problem with low trade volume in the region.
The country only legalized cryptocurrency trading in 2020, and even that was coupled with demands of rigid compliance to real-name trading accounts.
