South Korean Banks Register 100% Surge in Crypto Transaction Revenue During Q2 2021
South Korean banks have seen a flood on money coming in the form of crypto transaction revenue amid heightened trading activity during the second quarter of 2021.
Three South Korean banks - Shinban Bank, K bank and NH Nonghyup Bank - have reported a total revenue of 16.9 billion won coming through partnerships with several other crypto exchanges. The “big four” South Korean exchanges partnering with banks are Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone and Korbit.
As per the data present by Rep. Yun Chang-hyun of the People Power Party, the crypto transaction revenue is more than double the 7 billion won revenue recorded in the first quarter of 2021.
Speaking to the Korean Herald, Yun noted: “Compared to the beginning of the year, the number of accounts has increased five-fold and the balance of deposits has quadrupled, and the coin craze has not yet ended, with Bitcoin prices recently surging again.”
Taking a look at the breakout with individual bank, K bank alone clocked a massive 12 billion won in revenue due to its partnership with UpBit which is South Korea’s largest crypto exchange. The figure was just 5.2 billion won during the first quarter of 2021.
Another bank NH Nonghyup holds partnership with two major crypto exchanges - Bithumb and Coinone. With Bithumb, NH Nonghyup clocked 3.1 billion won in revenue over the second quarter.
Interestingly, the deposits data has skyrocketed significantly. The total deposits with real name accounts used for crypto trading stood at 1.7 trillion won by the end of 2020. However, these number jumped by 3x to 5.9 trillion won by the end-March and then to 7.08 trillion won as of the end of June.
Traditional banks have been always critical of the crypto market. However, it turns out the same crypto market is creating a solid revenue stream for the banks. More importantly, this comes as the South Korean regulators have been introducing stricter measures over crypto tax reporting and operations.
Las month itself, the Korea Financial Intelligence Unit issued notice to 27 foreign exchanges to report their customers KYC details, in accordance with the latest Korean AML regulations.