Tuesday’s buzz story in the crypto world was a circulation of rumors that digital asset trading giant Binance is allegedly seeking to start operations in South Korea. The hype was sparked by a publication in the Business Korea magazine.
Binance was set up in China last year but moved to Hong Kong due to the Chinese crypto ban, and has been recently establishing offices in countries with open and friendly crypto regulations, like Malta and Jersey. South Korea, however, although admitting the need for crypto regulations, is still in the early stages of their development and the rules are from clear.
Hence, the report about Binance’s Korea entry plans looked a bit strange, but it drew lots of attention. As at 11:51 UTC on Wednesday, ‘binance south korea’ was the fifth highest rising search query in English in Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) for the ‘search term: ‘binance’ for the last day. Moreover, the story about South Korea has become viral as it has the most sharings on social media related to Binance for the last 24 hours, according to Buzzsumo data.
What is fueling the rumors?
Binance cryptocurrency exchange is considering expansion to the South Korean market, the Business Korea magazine reported on early Tuesday morning UTC, at around 04:00.
“Launched in July last year, Binance is currently the largest one of its kind in terms of trading volume and it is planning to establish three to five local corporations,” the magazine wrote.
Entering the market directly with local products and connections with crypto community will make Binance a serious competitor to the established Korea-based players, Business Korea explained. Binance already maintains Korean language service on its website and has recently hired two locals Jeon Ah-rim as Korean marketing director and Christy Hyungwon Choi as a director of Binance Labs, the magazine said as arguments about the exchange’s future plans.
Over the weekend, Binance’s CEO Changpeng Zhao was part of the Blockchain Partners Summit in Seoul, which was another proof for its local operations plans, according to Business Korea. However, Zhao said this:
“Any country who is pro-ICO can attract lot of FDI, what is calling foreign direct investments [… ] Any country that does not allow ICOs is missing out big time.”
Screenshot 1 at 14:10 UTC on Tuesday.
A day later, the magazine changed the headline of the article and deleted part of the information inside it as you can see screenshot 1 and screenshot 2. It now states:
“Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, may enter South Korea. Launched in July last year, Binance is currently the largest one of its kind in terms of trading volume.”
Screenshot 2 at 12:00 UTC on Wednesday.
Moreover, a day after the hype that caused, Business Korea reported that a Binance official commented that whether the exchange “will enter Korea in the future depends on progress in Korean policy”.
In recent months, Binance has officially announced several expansion plans, including offices in Malta and Jersey.
This article appeared first on Cryptovest
