According to a report in a South Korean newspaper, Samsung Securities is one of seven major South Korean securities firms that have requested government authority to establish a virtual assets exchange. The businesses intend to establish a corporation and launch an exchange in the first half of 2023. An unnamed executive was quoted by the newspaper who added that discussions on the project are currently being finished.
Samsung Securities had been researching how to create and run a securities token trading platform, but according to the local news, it was unable to do so last year due to a lack of manpower.
The largest investment banking and stock brokerage by market cap in South Korea, Mirae Asset Consulting, an affiliate of Mirae Asset Securities, is hiring staff for cryptocurrency and nonfungible token (NFT) research and development.
Additionally named in the report were KB Securities, Shinhan Financial Investment, and NH Investment & Securities. The first cryptocurrency investment products for retail investors in South Korea will be launched, KB Bank revealed earlier this year.
The South Korean Financial Intelligence Unit discovered earlier this month that 16 foreign-based cryptocurrency exchanges, including KuCoin, Poloniex, and Phemex, were operating illegally and took a number of actions against them, including demanding that their websites be shut down.
Regulatory liberalisation implemented by the Yoon Seok administration may assist the development of a purported virtual assets exchange. The effort to establish the exchange by the securities businesses coincides with efforts to adopt the Digital Assets Framework Act, which will cover both security-type tokens and non-security-type tokens and define which domestic virtual assets fall under which category, according to the report. For its oversight of bitcoin exchanges, the nation’s Financial Services Commission has already drawn fire.