South Korean business-to-business fashion platform Sinsang Market has joined the Terra Alliance ecosystem, a stablecoin-focused association of large e-commerce companies. As South Korean economics-oriented newspaper EconoNews reported on Aug. 3, the partnership between Sinsang and Terra aims to create a payment system that deploys Korean mobile payment service CHAI. CHAI utilizes Terra’s blockchain technology to ensure fraud-resistant transactions and settlements with merchants in fiat currency. Sinsang will reportedly use Terra’s platform to enable its customers to conduct payments for a personal delivery service. Terra’s platform will ostensibly improve order settlements, payments and deliveries through CHAI. The Terra stablecoin was co-founded …

South Korea’s oldest bank, Shinhan Bank, is developing a distributed ledger technology (DLT)-enabled stock lending platform, local media Econonews reports on Aug. 1. Blockchain-based stock lending Per the report, Shinhan Financial Investment signed an agreement with financial services company Directional to develop a blockchain-based stock lending service on May 28. Personal stock lending is part of a broader development of innovative financial services that are currently being pursued by the company. Not the first Shinhan Blockchain-based Service At the end of May, Shinhan Bank also launched a blockchain-enabled lending platform to boost cost and time efficiencies in the lending process, …

Four South Korean cryptocurrency exchanges are reportedly facing stricter regulation as they aim to renew their banking accounts. As local industry media TheBchain reports on July 29, the new requirements come after the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) released recommendations on virtual currency regulations. Per the report, South Korean cryptocurrency exchanges Bithumb, Upbit, Coinone and Korbit will have to comply with new, stricter norms to successfully renew their banking partnerships following the FATF guidance released in June. As Cointelegraph reported at the time, the new guidance posits that crypto asset service providers should comply with Anti-Money Laundering and combating the …

United States blockchain-based rewards and marketing company Refereum has announced a partnership with a South Korean online games developer and publisher to expand its in-game rewards scheme. 8 million players to gain access to tokens In a press release shared with Cointelegraph and subsequent blog post July 23, Refereum, which pays users in its in-house RFR token, said the feature would now roll out to players of Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds, developed by PUBG. The game is one of the most popular for Xbox, with over 8 million sales. The rewards scheme will feature a first for the company, allowing players to …

South Korea’s President Moon Jae-In stated that regulatory innovation regarding blockchain technology is now a question of survival. Regulatory innovation is not a matter of choice anymore, it is a question of survival The President of South Korea stressed the importance of the development of new regulatory approaches towards new technologies such as blockchain in the light of the selection of Busan city as a regulation-free zone, according to a press release shared with Cointelegraph on July 24. In the press release, Moon compared the era of industrialization to the ongoing fourth industrial revolution, claiming that the latter requires regulatory …

Financial Services Commission (FSC) chairman Choi Jong-ku, a governmental official in South Korea who took a hard line on domestic initial coin offerings (ICOs), has tendered his resignation. The Korea Times reported the chairman’s decision on July 18. "I recently tendered my resignation to President Moon Jae-in to widen the scope of his choice before the expected reshuffle," Choi said. According to the report, officials in the finance sector expected Choi Jong-ku’s resignation, since historically the finance chair does not complete their term in office. There are also reported rumors that Choi will run for a National Assembly seat in …

South Korea has the highest blockchain patent grant rate, according to London-based law firm Withers & Rogers. Meanwhile, Japan comes at a distant second, intellectual property business media platform IAM reports on July 23. Getting a blockchain patent in China takes a while Per the report, South Korea has the highest patent grant rate (54%), followed by Japan (17%), and the United States (16%), with China significantly lagging behind. The outlet suggests that a reason for this substantial disparity between China and the rest of the world is that a sizable portion of those patents outside China follow a procedure …

The South Korean Justice Ministry estimates that cryptocurrency-related crimes have caused 2.69 trillion won (about $2.28 billion) of financial damage between July 2017 and June 2019. According to a July 21 report by English-language local media The Korea Herald, the ministry claimed that 132 cryptocurrency-related criminals and fraudsters had been indicted and detained, with another 288 indicted without physical detention during the aforementioned time frame. The report states that, while Justice Minister Park Sang-kim has ordered stern measures against cryptocurrency criminals, a lack of clear regulations on cryptocurrency exchanges has led to an increase in the use of quasi-anonymous or …

On July 10, Kim Nam-jin applied for a Trademark 5 (TM5) on the name “Samsung Coin” with the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO). As per the filing, it appears that Nam-jin is seeking to trademark the name in both its Korean spelling in Hangul as well as in English. However, per a July 19 report, a Samsung representative told CoinDesk that Kim Nam-jin is not affiliated with the Korean tech giant Samsung. “We don’t work this way,” the representative apparently said. Additionally, the report says that the trademark was listed under categories including downloadable electronic money computer program, electronic money …

States, provinces and municipalities could use cryptocurrencies to fund projects and programs. Municipal cryptocurrencies — that is, cryptocurrencies launched by cities — could offer citizens a new way to invest in a certain location and even buy goods while helping governments to fund projects. Campbell Harvey from Duke University told Cointelegraph that municipal cryptocurrencies could provide a mechanism to fund certain projects. According to Harvey: “I think of it as, say, we need to build a new soccer field, given that we now have more boys and girls teams and the old field just can't handle it. So, we need …

Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange by daily trading volume to date, is reportedly planning to set up a branch in South Korea. Malta-based crypto exchange Binance is working with local partners in South Korea to launch a new exchange in the country, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) revealed, according to a report by crypto media outlet Block In Press on July 16. CZ reportedly said that the company does not know the details of the establishment of the new office in South Korea. However, a global representative of Binance denied the news in the report, claiming that Binance team …

South Korea’s leading credit card firm Shinhan Card has been granted a patent for a blockchain payments system, English-language local media The Korea Times reports on July 15. Per the report, with the newly patented technology the company has established a blockchain-powered credit transaction process allowing for setting spending limits, paying in monthly installments and carrying out payments. The outlet quotes an anonymous Shinhan Card official commenting on the development: “Services using those key functions of credit cards will be extended to the blockchain-based system, a notable advancement from the status quo whereby most blockchain-based services available are limited to …