Seven major domestic securities companies in South Korea have filed to launch their own cryptocurrency exchanges in the country. Local newspaper NewsPim reported the new development on Monday.
According to NewsPim, Samsung Securities, Mirae Asset Securities, and five other giant brokerage companies have applied for preliminary approval to operate an exchange within the first-half of 2023.
Mirae Asset Securities Co., Limited is the largest investment bank and stock brokerage company by market capitalization in South Korea, with $648 billion under its management.
As per NewsPim, Mirae has developed a subsidiary under its consultation arm Mirae Consulting to operate the exchange. Mirae is seeking to hire technical staff to research and develop cryptocurrency and other blockchain-based platforms.
Similarly, Samsung Securities is carrying out studies on how best to enter the cryptocurrency ecosystem.
Samsung Securities is a South Korea-based wealth management firm that provides a wide range of financial services from brokerage, wealth management and investment advisory services to corporate finance and trading.
According to NewsPim, Samsung Securities tried to spearhead the development of a crypto trading platform last year, though it failed to acquire the necessary talent to do so.
The report said the sudden influx of institutional interest in South Korea was driven by the newly elected President Yoon Suk-Yeol, who took office in May.
President Yoon promised deregulation of the Bitcoin and crypto markets during his recent presidential election campaign trials.
To assist in accomplishing such goals, the report disclosed that South Korea’s Financial Services Commission (FSC), the South Korean government’s top financial regulator, plans to revise the relevant laws for Bitcoin, cryptocurrencies, and securities.
The regulator intends to push for a Digital Assets Framework Act so that these (Bitcoin, cryptocurrencies, and securities) can be managed in one regulated framework divided into security-type tokens and non-security-type tokens.
According to NewsPim, the FSC will also examine whether domestic virtual assets are securities.
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