- South Korea approved Ripple’s third local banking tie-up of the year, with Jeonbuk Bank.
- At the same time, its media commission voted to block Polymarket as an illegal gambling service.
- XRP fell below $1 to a near two-year low even as Ripple’s institutional deals multiplied.
South Korean regulators approved Ripple’s integration with the country’s banking system on the same day a media watchdog voted to cut off access to the prediction market Polymarket.
South Korean regulators have joined a widening crackdown against Polymarket while approving Ripple’s partnership with Jeonbuk Bank.
Jeonbuk Bank is Ripple’s first regional lender in Korea
Ripple (XRP) has announced that Jeonbuk Bank will run cross-border business remittances over Ripple Payments, making it the first regional lender in the country to adopt the service.
Traditional transfers have to be routed between intermediary banks on the SWIFT network, and this process can make transactions take days to clear. However, Ripple offers a route that settles in seconds to minutes and runs around the clock. The service is aimed at the bank’s importers, exporters, IT startups and online content creators.
Jeonbuk is Ripple’s third Korean partnership of 2026, following a tokenized government-bond trial with Kyobo Life Insurance and a custody and wallet deal with internet-only Kbank.
Despite these partnership announcements, XRP slipped under $1 to 98 cents in Asian morning trading on Tuesday, its weakest level since November 2024 and the worst performer among major coins over the day and week.
The decline might be due to RLUSD, Ripple’s dollar-pegged stablecoin, which now does much of the institutional settlement work. Tokenized real-world assets on the XRP Ledger are worth roughly $1.38 billion, and $845 million of that is RLUSD, representing more than three-fifths of the total value.
RLUSD’s circulating supply reached approximately 1.71 billion tokens, with a market capitalization of around $1.71 billion. Ripple minted another 10 million RLUSD on the XRP Ledger on August 17.
Despite the drop in XRP’s price, traders are still leaning long, with futures open interest near $2.78 billion.
Is Polymarket a legal platform in South Korea?
On the same day that the Ripple deal advanced, the Korea Media and Communications Standards Commission voted to block domestic access to Polymarket, stating that the platform facilitates gambling under the Criminal Act and the National Sports Promotion Act.
The commission explained that because payouts hinge on events users cannot control and winners take the entire pot, the design “fuels gambling psychology.” It also noted the fact that Polymarket sets the markets, runs the settlement rails, and collects trading fees.
Polymarket argued it had removed Korean-language services and won-denominated payments and therefore fell outside Korean law, but the regulator rejected that, saying technical features cannot exempt a platform providing “a real illegal gambling environment to domestic users.”
Cryptopolitan has been tracking the situation since the Korean police opened the country’s first criminal investigation into local Polymarket bettors after heavy trading around the June 3 national election. The commission began deliberations on July 6 after referrals from the National Police Agency.
Beyond Korea, more than 30 countries, including Italy, Indonesia, and Argentina, have blocked or limited Polymarket.
If you're reading this, you’re already ahead. Stay there with our newsletter.
FAQs
Why did South Korea block Polymarket?
The Korea Media and Communications Standards Commission ruled that Polymarket's winner-takes-all structure, based on events users cannot control, facilitates illegal gambling under the Criminal Act and National Sports Promotion Act, and rejected the platform's argument that removing Korean-language services exempted it from local law.
What is Ripple's deal with Jeonbuk Bank?
Jeonbuk Bank became the first regional bank in Korea to deploy Ripple Payments for cross-border business remittances, replacing multi-day SWIFT transfers with settlement in seconds to minutes, though the corridors, fees and go-live timing were not disclosed.
Why is XRP falling despite Ripple's partnerships?
XRP slipped to 98 cents, its lowest since November 2024, because Ripple has been pushing its RLUSD stablecoin as the settlement asset for institutional deals and did not confirm that the Jeonbuk deployment uses XRP, so the adoption has not translated into token demand.
Disclaimer. The information provided is not trading advice. Cryptopolitan.com holds no liability for any investments made based on the information provided on this page. We strongly recommend independent research and/or consultation with a qualified professional before making any investment decisions.
Hannah Collymore
Hannah is a writer and editor with nearly a decade of blog writing and event reporting experience in the crypto space. At Cryptopolitan, Hannah contributes to the news page, reporting and analyzing the latest developments in DeFi, RWA, crypto regulation, AI and frontier tech industries. She graduated from Arcadia university with a degree in Business Administration.
