Binance Korea to shut down next month

Popular cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, has revealed its intention to shut down its Korean office. In a notice published today, the exchange cited low trading volumes and a lack of liquidity as the reason for the closure. This is coming just eight months after Binance Korea launched in April 2020.

So far, the Korean division has enjoyed the liquidity and order matching engine of Binance international. However, this is set to change with the forthcoming law banning the sharing of order books across exchanges in South Korea.

A section of the new rule, as reported by local media sources reads:

It is forbidden to allow customers to trade virtual assets with customers of other virtual asset operators through partnerships with other virtual asset operators.

Although the new law will go into effect from March 25, Binance Korea has announced that it will close all new registrations and deposits starting today at 2:00 PM KST. Meanwhile, trading and withdrawals will be halted on January 8 and January 29, 2021, respectively.

To this end, Binance Korea users have until January 29 to transfer their assets to other exchanges or withdraw as fiat.

According to Binance CEO Changpeng Zhai, his firm “we will continue looking for ways to improve and provide the best services for users including our KR [Korean] community.”