By
Steve Muchoki
April 24th, 2024
In a note to executives and employees at the time of his retirement, Lee also talked about the necessity of blockchain technology.
According to some recent reports, Binance is collaborating with Lee Woong-Yeol, the honorary chairman of Kolon, for a new virtual asset exchange in South Korea. According to sources, Lee plans to introduce a joint venture with Binance to create an exchange for both the government and financial authorities.
Moreover, native blockchain companies that target logistics and digital asset issuers are allegedly helping Lee establish the exchange. Lee has talked to local and global virtual asset and blockchain enterprises for more than three years to kickstart his new project.
In a note to executives and employees at the time of his retirement, Lee talked about the necessity of blockchain technology. However, he said that he was unsure of what exactly was the technology about. If the deliberation on the Binance deal is fruitful, the domestic digital asset exchange may witness a massive revolution. In fact, the new exchange may compete with Upbit, which presently possesses an eighty-eight percent market share and virtually controls the market.
Binance has recently re-entered the South Korean market after a break of two years by acquiring Gopax. In January this year, Binance announced that the company was aiming for a forty-one percent stake in Gopax. However, the exchange removed the post quickly and did not comment on the same. While the percentage of stake is still unknown, the world’s most popular crypto exchange has been able to buy itself a significant equity position in Gopax.
This was a part of the Industry Recovery Initiative, which is a finance-initiative investment project to which Binance announced $1 billion, offering the cash for the transaction. However, the deal is presently being investigated by South Korean Officials. Without giving out the specifics of the transactions, Chief Business Officer Yibo Ling allegedly claimed that the exchange purchased a substantial position at Gopax. The news about the massive purchase was made public when Gopax paused withdrawals from some specific products after the fall of FTX.
Nonetheless, it is important to mention that Streami Inc., Gopax’s parent unit is one of the biggest creditors of Genesis which recently filed for bankruptcy. Digital Currency Group (DCG) is the second largest shareholder at Gopax. Taking into account the current bankruptcy battle of these companies, Binance is up for a tough time in the South Korean Market.
Binance has also lately found trouble when regulators examined and criticized its stablecoin issuer, Paxos. Moreover, Binance.US is also trying hard to acquire the bankrupt cryptocurrency company Voyager. Here too, the exchange is witnessing opposition from the regulatory authorities.