Bitcoin consignment service for Korean companies and institutions will be released in January of this year.

Virtual asset consignment service will be started for Korean companies and institutions. Although it is interested in virtual assets as an investment vehicle, it is expected to be good news for Korean companies and institutional investors who have been hesitant because there is no suitable counter.

In particular, Kookmin Bank's safe trust know-how, which exceeded 200 trillion won for the first time among commercial banks in Korea last year, and the technology of Haechi Labs, a blockchain specialized company that specializes in virtual asset wallet management services, are added to help businesses safer virtual assets. It is expected that an environment for investment will be created.

■Korea's first company bitcoin consignment service

Korea Digital Asset (KODA), a comprehensive virtual asset management company, announced on the 27th December that it will start bitcoin consignment service for Korean companies and institutions from January 2021. KODA is a joint venture created by investing shares of Kookmin Bank, blockchain technology company Haechi Labs, and digital asset investment company Hashed (www.hashed.com).

The virtual asset consignment business is planned to be provided by KODA in cooperation with the virtual asset exchange. Prior to the official launch of the service, KODA is currently discussing the use of consignment services with several companies.

It is planned to start with bitcoin and expand to virtual assets with significant market capitalization such as Ethereum and stable coin (value-stabilized currency). KODA CEO Moon explained that Kakao's virtual assets, KLAY and XRP, are also considering support.

KODA plans to provide not only virtual asset consignment, but also a transaction service that enables companies to buy and sell virtual assets. Currently, in Korea, there are limited windows for institutional investors to trade virtual assets in Korean won, and there is a large uncertainty in the conclusion of the transaction due to lack of liquidity. KODA will also provide a service for buying and selling virtual assets that companies can liquidate their investments. And it is very important point for foreign investors.

CEO Moon said, "We will establish ourselves as a partner that can resolve concerns that may arise when investing in virtual assets such as bitcoin purchase, sale, storage, trust, and tax accounting for companies and institutions." It will be resolved through cooperation with specialized over-the-counter (OTC) companies such as Cumberland DRW LLC Korea."

■'Whitelist' service to stop money laundering

KODA plans to release a 'whitelist' solution in January this year that allows remittances only to virtual asset wallets that have been approved in advance such as KYC (Know-Your-Customer) to block various regulatory risks such as virtual asset money laundering.

Although the obligation to prevent anti-money laundering (AML) of virtual asset providers has been stipulated through the revised Special Finance Information Act, it is still technically difficult for the banking sector to grasp information on the recipient of virtual assets, and KODA will solve this.

The solution is that, specifically, a wallet issued by an exchange for which KYC has been completed is registered with KODA, a third-party trusted institution, and when an exchange customer requests a remittance, it checks whether it is registered with KODA and allows remittances only to the registered wallet.

​Initially, it will focus on preventing the threat of preventing money laundering of virtual assets through registration with domestic exchanges and cooperation with KYC overseas exchanges in the future. KODA plans to provide a whitelist solution for free to create a transparent transaction ecosystem for virtual assets, and it is known that it is currently conducting verification with some exchanges.