The users of OKEx will have to withdraw their savings from the platform to avoid losses. There are no official versions, but the closure could be due to the new laws in the Asian country.
The OKEx exchange recently announced that they will stop operating in South Korea as of April 7th, 2021. The firm asked its users in the country to withdraw their savings from the platform before that date.
OKEx has not yet provided official explanations about the causes that lead it to make this decision. However, they said that the new regulations in the country, apart from business difficulties, were among the triggers. The official rules will prohibit exchanges from sharing order books, specifically since March 25th.
Another law that the authorities announced in November 2020 will prohibit privacy-based transactions with cryptocurrencies. For that reason, it would not be possible to trade Monero (XMR), Dash (DASH), and Zcash (ZEC) since March 2021.
Customers Will Have to Withdraw Their Balances
In the framework of a fight against money laundering, the South Korean Government has approved a new law. This rule obliges digital service providers to disclose information about their customers that conduct transactions exceeding USD 1,000. This could also affect the number of cryptocurrency transactions that users make in that Asian country.
In recent days, OKEx explained that they will not be responsible for the losses of users who do not withdraw their balances before April 7th. The exchange scheduled the end of the service for 6 p.m. (South Korean time) on that same date.
Binance’s Background in South Korea
In recent years, Korea has not been a particularly fertile ground for crypto assets. The Binance exchange also decided to leave the country in December 2020, just 8 months after it launched its platform there.
The low volume of transactions on Binance KRW (BKRW) and the low liquidity for users allegedly led to that situation. The closing of trading services on the platform took place on January 8th, 2021.
The Importance of OKEx in the Field of Crypto Assets
The OKEx exchange ranks 13 among the 15 most used exchanges in the world, according to data from CoinMarketCap. The platform currently offers various services related to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Therefore, its exit from the Korean market is a considerable setback for the advancement of crypto assets in that Asian country.
One of the main strengths of the exchange is that it offers the possibility of operating in more than 100 countries. Similarly, the low cost in fees of the platform is another prominent feature. For example, in Latin America, OKEx fees reach 0.08% and go down as users conduct transactions.
Korea is not the only country whose government has been against the transaction of Bitcoin and other decentralized cryptocurrencies. The authorities of China and the United States, for example, have expressed their skepticism about these kinds of assets. These countries are working on the development of their central bank digital currencies (CBDC).
By Alexander Salazar
