The Korea Herald, Shinban Bank, K bank and NH Nonghyup Bank announced a total revenue of 16.9 billion South Korean won in Q2. The crypto exchanges in South Korea Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone and Korbit have partnered with the banks for sourcing users’ real-name accounts.
Based on the data collected the second quarter performance exceeded the first quarter’s approximately 7 billion won mark, more than doubling transactions despite ongoing market fluctuations.
The data shows that K bank’s partnership with Upbit resulted in the biggest share of 12 billion won, over 71% of the total revenue. In the first quarter, the bank made 5.2 billion won through the crypto exchange partnership.
NH Nonghyup’s two-way partnership with Bithumb and Coinone wasn’t as impressive as K bank’s revenue. With Bithumb, the bank reported earnings of approximately 3.1 billion won in the second quarter, while Coinone contributed 1.78 billion won throughout the financial year.The Shinhan Bank–Korbit partnership reported the lowest earnings of almost $0.3 million in the last quarter.
South Korean regulators have warned crypto exchanges to have voluntarily registered with local authorities by Sept. 24. The warning has been issued to all crypto exchanges that make use of the Korean language, Korean won or that serve the Korean market. The penalty for entities that don’t follow these guideline will face prison time of up to five years or a fine of 50 million won.
