While the government has formalized high-strength regulations on cryptocurrency, it is predicted that the cryptocurrency exchange market will be reorganized mainly by large companies. The related industry is predicting that the domestic cryptocurrency trading market will be reorganized mainly with Bithumb and Upbit, where 90% of domestic investors gather. Banks that sign contracts with them and issue real-name accounts also seem to be busy.
According to the cryptocurrency industry on the 2nd, Bithumb has recently begun negotiations with NH Nonghyup Bank to renew a real-name authentication account.
NH Nonghyup Bank is a bank that issues deposit and withdrawal accounts (real name accounts) for Bithumb users, and has been renewing contracts every six months since January 2018. The two companies renewed their contract in February, and the partnership has been in place until July. Bithumb and NH Nonghyup Bank did not disclose specific details, but it is analyzed that the number of Bithumb members in the industry has reached 5 million, so the contract will be renewed without unreasonableness.
Banks charge a certain level of fees on cryptocurrency exchanges. Nonghyup Bank received a commission of 1.3 billion won from Bithumb and 330 million won from Coinone in the first quarter.
For banks, the profit from the cryptocurrency exchange partnership is not large compared to other financial services, but the ‘benefit’ is greater than the ‘real’. First of all, it is because it helps attract new customers, especially MZ generation (a combination of millennials and Generation Z born after 1995) customers who are interested in cryptocurrency. In addition, new services can be jointly promoted. As a result, the industry’s consensus is that banks will not be able to easily give up their partnership with exchanges.
Bithumb’s competitor, Upbit, also signed a contract with K-Bank, its main bank, at the beginning of this year, so it is expected that the contract will be renewed unless there are special issues. In particular, K-Bank is evaluated as the bank that has benefited the most from its partnership with Upbit.
In the first quarter of last year, K-Bank received a fee of 5,041 million won from Upbit as a fee for using firm banking. As of the end of April, the number of registered customers was 5.37 million, an increase of 1.46 million from the end of the previous month. In the industry, both K-Bank and Upbit have a synergistic effect, so the contract renewal is expected to be positive.
An industry official said, “Since the user deposits of Bithumb and Upbit reach trillions, it is not a situation in which the authorities can easily block the trading industry. “It is the background that the banking sector will continue to renew contracts with exchanges without difficulty,” he said.
