'Separating Listing and Trading Operations at Korean Crypto Exchanges'

Yesterday afternoon a local press report from Maeil Business Newspaper aroused the attention from many within the crypto space.
Sharing a summary of the article, fact checks and our comments about the issue. 👇

The key point of the article was: “Separating Listing and Trading Operations at Korean Crypto Exchanges”

Key Points:
1️⃣ Regulatory Measures to Address Conflicts of Interest:
o Korean financial authorities are considering measures to separate the functions of domestic cryptocurrency exchanges, which currently handle listing, trading, settlement, and custody, to enhance transparency and eliminate conflicts of interest.
o The Financial Services Commission (FSC) and the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) submitted a report to the National Assembly's Political Affairs Committee outlining regulatory directions and future legislative considerations for virtual assets.

2️⃣ Detailed Segmentation of Exchange Functions:
o The proposal suggests segmenting cryptocurrency exchange operations into distinct categories: exchange operations, listing, custodial services, advisory and discretionary services.
o The initial focus will be on separating custodial and advisory services, with further segmentation into settlement and other operations to be considered as long-term goals based on market and regulatory trends.

3️⃣ Comparison with Traditional Financial Markets:
o This approach mirrors the structure of traditional financial markets, which have distinct entities for exchange operations, listing committees, and custodial services to reduce potential conflicts of interest and enhance transparency.

4️⃣ Concerns from the Industry:
o Cryptocurrency exchanges express concerns that such segmentation might constrain their business operations.
o Industry representatives argue that failing to reflect the diverse nature of cryptocurrencies and their listing processes might disrupt the balance between regulation and industry growth.
o Concerns also include that only the largest exchanges with significant trading volumes may survive, leading to reduced competition and innovation in the market.

📌 What does the above mean in simple terms?
> Example comparison (for listing): Financial regulator decides what gets listed on #Coinbase #Kraken and #Robinhood .

📌 Comments from CEX Representatives:
• We talked with 3 of the top 4 CEXs in Korea and overall (obviously) they were against the idea.
• Nevertheless, if implemented, the top CEX would benefit as this would reduce resources allocated for research, due diligence etc to list projects.

📌 Comments from Former Financial Regulator:
• This was suggested as a benchmark of the Korean Equity Market.

📌 Trinito comments:
• Based on our talks with CEX representatives and former financial regulator, we believe the likelihood of these measures' implementation is very low.
• If it were to go through (which we believe will not), it will take a very long time until it is fully implemented.
• Meanwhile after the Act on the Protection of Virtual Assets comes into effect from 19 July, we believe there may be changes to listing from Korean CEXs whereby they will be able to charge listing + listing maintenance fees to all projects officially under a new guideline.
• Foreign projects will most likely be obliged to prepare additional documents in Korean for Korean investors.

For more about Korean cryto related news, please follow our official account @trinito_real & Medium (https://t.co/HTzNt6Yroe).

- Article Link (Korean)
https://t.co/fXqzkAMg4E