South Korean Bank Will Soon Launch Vault Service for Bitcoin

With time, the popularity of bitcoin in South Korea has considerably grown. Now, recent reports indicate that the country’s second largest bank is considering the idea of offering a cryptocurrency custody service.

With this in mind, the Shinhan Bank in South Korea, which also happens to be one of the country’s largest financial institution, is willing to provide a service for investors that want to get involved with digital currencies, yet don’t want to look after their coins. The bank begun working on the service earlier in 2017, and reports now indicate that the service is almost ready for its launch. While most people prefer to keep their private keys safe on their own, thus preventing third party services from getting involved, institutional investors often don’t want this responsibility.

According to the bank, once the service will start, they’ll be offering zero fees for storage and deposits. However, users will have to pay a small fee upon withdrawal. Additionally, the bank is also working on creating a test server, meant to demonstrate how the service will work. It is expected that the Shinhan bank will also grant users access to a mobile app which contains a dashboard needed to view various stats on the coins alongside with deposit and withdrawal information.

A Shinhan bank representative recently mentioned that: "It is a service that keeps the block chain key through the virtual safe provided by the bank. We are looking for ways to provide a free service when depositing and charge a fee when withdrawing."

Many believe that the service is a direct result of the various security breaches that digital currency exchanges have been dealing with over the last couple of months. Therefore, storing the coins in a form of cold storage, in a bank vault will definitely increase their security. However, this will also reduce liquidity of the funds, as withdrawals may take longer.

Apart from offering this service, the Shinhan bank is also actively working with a fintech start-up known as Streami. Therefore, the bank is also preparing the launch of various blockchain-based solutions that would provide users with faster transactions, lower fees and other benefits as well.

Based on everything that has been outlined so far, we’re excited to see what the interest for a bank-based bitcoin vault will be, and whether the service will attract both individual and institutional investors.