Acquisition of shares in GOPAX, one of Korea’s top five exchanges
Binance, the largest crypto asset (virtual currency) exchange, announced on the 3rd that it will re-enter the Korean market. It looks like it has acquired a lot of shares in the Korean exchange GOPAX.
Binance has yet to reveal the terms of the deal or the size of its investment in GOPAX, but Korean media outlet Decenter reported in January that Binance plans to buy about 41% of GOPAX shares.
Binance previously operated in South Korea, but closed its affiliate in South Korea in 2020 due to strict restrictions by financial authorities and a low number of users. This time, it is a form of re-advance through GOPAX, which is already in operation in the country.
GOPAX is one of the top five cryptocurrency exchanges in South Korea. Currently, South Korea’s largest exchange, Upbit, has the majority of the market share. Binance has more stocks than Upbit. If these stocks are also offered on GOPAX, there is a possibility that users will move.
The second largest shareholder in GOPAX’s parent company, Streami, is the U.S. virtual currency conglomerate Digital Currency Group (DCG), and Streami is one of the largest creditors of DCG subsidiary Genesis, which has filed for bankruptcy.
In this regard, GOPAX is currently suspending withdrawals and interest payments on yield products. The Binance/GOPAX deal is expected to allow users to resume withdrawals and interest payments.
Binance Chief Business Officer Yibo Ling said:
The goal of supporting users and enabling withdrawals for all those who want to withdraw their assets is what drove the deal with GOPAX.
End of wallet offering to WazirX in India
Binance has announced that it will no longer provide Binance wallets to major Indian exchange WazirX.
As a background, WazirX was criticized by the Indian authorities for promoting money laundering, but Binance made a misleading explanation that it was managing the assets and user activities of WazirX users and the operation of the platform. It’s here.
According to Binance, Binance only provides wallet services to Zanmai Labs, which operates WazirX, and has never managed the operation of WazirX, including user funds. Binance points out:
It is in Binance’s and the public interest not to allow Zanmai to continue to misrepresent its use of Binance’s wallet services. We view Zanmai’s false claims as an attempt to shift responsibility for WazirX’s business to Binance.
Binance said on January 26 that it had asked Zanmai to choose between withdrawing its false claims or deactivating Binance wallets.
As a result, Zanmai has refused to retract its statements, and Binance has just asked by February 3 to withdraw funds from accounts used for WazirX operations. As of the 3rd, he explained that the assets were still in the wallet.
WazirX did an asset verification in January, stating that it held 90% of user assets in a Binance-powered wallet. The remaining 10% are stored in both hot and cold wallets.
Relation: What is Binance, the world’s largest virtual currency exchange?
