Now that we've got Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand and The Phillipines down in our series on how to buy bitcoin in Asia, let's take a look at Korea's bitcoin scene. Here we have listed three major exchanges that's lifting the Bitcoin industry in Korea.
1. Korbit
Founded in 2013, Korbit is the product of entrepreneurs from Silicon Valley and Seoul. They were first in the world to offer Bitcoin-Korean Won exchange with their Bitcoin wallet and merchant processing services through Korbit Pay.
“The bitcoin exchange market is pretty healthy in Korea,” said Tony Lyu, the CEO of Korbit. “The use of bitcoin in commerce is just starting to pick up, through the introduction of merchant processing services such as Korbit Pay." He also believes that Bitcoin is able to drastically improve the online payments experience for Korean users.
This financial technology company now has 25,000 user accounts, 400 merchant accounts and is backed by global corporations and Silicon Valley investors.
2. Coinplug
Coinplug was started in June 2013 by engineers from both Silicon Valley and Korea, with a management team of Ryan Uhr, Jay Hong and Richard Yun. The Bitcoin exchange provides various platforms such as a Bitcoin exchange marketplace, electronic wallet service, and online POS (Point-of-Sales) service.
In March 2014, Coinplug launched South Korea’s very first two-way Bitcoin ATM situated in Coffee Sedona Café in Coex Mall, one of Seoul’s largest malls. Two-way ATMs allow users to buy bitcoins using cash and also to sell bitcoins for cash. However, the machine has some restrictions, such as only allowing transactions at a maximum of $200 each, and a maximum of three transactions a day per wallet address.
Coinplug has now launched three Android bitcoin apps for merchants and traders, and a wallet app for everyday users. The company has also been funded by its Silicon Valley-based partner, venture capital firm Silverblue. Coinplug has plans of expanding their Bitcoin services from Korea to the rest of Asia.
3. CCnex
CCnex is a Bitcoin exchange solely operated by iCoins Inc. with a vision of a transparent exchange. They believe that security is a key factor in choosing any exchange, with a guarantee to safely secure all coins.
CCNEX proves their transparency by conducting all businesses with a zero binding decision making process. Besides, they plan on revealing total users wallet balance as well as CCnex balance, including transaction volume to prevent any accidents.
For security reasons, CCnex also offers two separate wallets for each account— the Safe Wallet for external transactions and Trade Wallet for internal transactions within their exchange.
CCnex is the world’s first crypto currency exchange to provide a merged trade system which helps users save trading time process and generate profit. This system conveniently eliminates user’s unnecessary efforts of searching for the best price prior to trade.
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Tam Xueh Wei
Xueh Wei is a freelance writer that’s enthusiastic for adventures and the space beyond comfort zones. She's always on the look out for the next thing to eat, do, and love. Follow the author on Twitter @punkbelina
