Shinhan Bank Expands Global Cryptocurrency Business with BitGo

Shinhan Bank is expanding its global virtual asset business, including cryptocurrency. It was decided to discover a diversified asset portfolio business model through business agreements with digital asset custodial (consignment and storage) companies.

Shinhan Bank announced on the 28th that it has signed a business agreement to establish a cooperation system in the field of digital assets with BitGo, a digital asset financial service company in the US, and Korea Digital Asset Management (KDAC), a custodial company.

Through this agreement, the three companies agreed to jointly promote the development of custodial solutions and provide custodial services for all digital assets including virtual assets. In addition, it plans to gradually expand the foundation for cooperation with various external partners such as global virtual asset providers.

Bitgo is the world’s largest company that processes more than 20% of the world’s bitcoin transactions and has over 400 institutional clients around the world. In particular, it has a service that can entrust digital assets in a 100% offline environment for customers in Asia. In Japan, 25% of virtual asset exchanges that have already been approved by the Japan Financial Services Agency (FSA) use the service.

Shinhan Bank Digital Innovation Director Kim Chul-ki said,

“Through cooperation with three companies, we plan to focus our custody service capabilities for institutional investors. Through cooperation with partners, we will continue to develop a business model that can improve customer convenience and diversify our asset portfolio. I will excavate it.”

Earlier, on the 7th, Shinhan Bank promoted a strategic equity investment in KDAC, which was established by Cobit, a blockchain technology company, and Fairsquare Lab, a digital asset research company, to enter the digital asset custody market.

Meanwhile, the Act on the Reporting and Use of Specific Financial Transaction Information (Special Act) that regulates related industries such as blockchain and cryptocurrency will be implemented in March next year. Digital asset custody is an area where banks’ compliance capabilities and custody experience can be utilized well, so there is a high interest. Shinhan Bank plans to preemptively respond to the rapidly changing digital asset market, such as the enforcement of the Special Act, by providing safe and convenient digital asset management services.

Shinhan Bank is using blockchain technology for a variety of products and services such as gold security service, doctor loan qualification verification, and policy loans for small businesses. Recently, it is actively promoting business opportunities such as participation in the central bank’s digital currency technology verification project and discovery of financial services using digital assets.

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