Korean Virtual Asset Exchange, Real Name Account Issuance Countdown

With the revised Korean Specific Financial Information Act (SFIA) that regulates virtual asset providers in effect on the March 25th, exchanges that have not yet issued real-name confirmation deposit and withdrawal accounts from banks have started to prevent customer churn.

According to industry sources on the March 29th, virtual asset exchanges such as Gopax and Gdak started a real-name account pre-booking event. If a real-name account is issued from a bank in the future, the main point is to give benefits to users who have reserved the account linkage in advance.

According to the Special Financial Information Act, virtual asset exchanges wishing to provide KRW deposit/withdrawal service must obtain a real name account from a bank and report it to the Korean Financial Information Analysis Unit (KoFIU). The deadline for reporting is until September 24th, when the six-month grace period ends.

If a real-name account cannot be issued, only other requirements such as ISMS (Information Security Management System) certification are met, and the KRW deposit/withdrawal service can be abandoned. However, if the KRW deposit/withdrawal is not provided, the market competitiveness is lowered, so most exchanges are in a position to obtain a real name account before the reporting deadline.

The problem is that before issuance, a customer can leave to another exchange. Currently, there are four exchanges in the market that have partnered with banks such as Bithumb, Upbit, Coinone, and Korbit. Accordingly, exchanges that do not yet have real-name accounts decided to hold pre-booking events to prevent customer churn.

Gopax is holding an event that gives a total of 2,000 won worth of bitcoin (BTC) through a lottery to 106 pre-bookers until April 19th. In addition, if a real-name account is issued in the future, coffee gifticon will be paid to all members who linked the account after pre-booking.

An official at Gopax said, “This is to show our customers our will to issue an account. We emphasize the fact that real-name accounts can be issued before the reporting deadline, and we want to prevent customer churn.”

Earlier, it was reported that Gopax is discussing issuing a real name account with BNK Busan Bank. However, in this regard, it was known that the contract was not in progress, only the account linkage test was conducted.

Gdak will hold similar events until April 23rd. It is an event that presents 10,000 won worth of bitcoin (BTC) to 1,000 customers who have previously applied for account linkage through a lottery.

Gdak said, "Applicants for pre-reservation for real-name accounts can receive the fastest news of the account service provision." He then emphasized that it had already met other requirements besides real-name account, saying, “Both exchanges and custodial services have completed information protection management system (ISMS) certification.”

So account real name issue is more important than before for digital asset exchanges.