At the very first official meeting between the South Korean government and five of the nation’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the country, Hong Joon-ki, CEO of Cumberland Korea stated that both the South Korean government and local financial institutions have to acknowledge the efforts of Nasdaq, Fidelity as well as other large conglomerates around the world who are working towards to strengthening the current infrastructure in the cryptocurrency arena.

Hong, who has been the head of operations for Cumberland, which is a major OTC (Over-The-Counter) exchange in South Korea, told government authorities which included several South Korean congressmen, members of the National Assembly and Financial Services Commission (FSC) members that the government has to take note of the rate at which the crypto sector is blooming with the involvement and help of many major financial firms such as the ones mentioned above.

Just in the third quarter of 2018, the world’s biggest stock exchanges, NYSE and Nasdaq as well as the global market’s fourth-largest asset management conglomerate – Fidelity, all founded Bitcoin ventures such as the likes of futures markets and custodial solutions in an effort to encourage crypto adoption as well as provide an easy solution for institutional investors to invest in the crypto market.

Local Government, Financial Institutions & Banks Should Also Take Note.

In the last two years, the only two major banks, being Shinhan and Nonghyup, have made efforts to focus on the improvement of the South Korean cryptocurrency infrastructure.

The country’s second-most valuable commercial bank, Shinhan Bank, created their own digital currency exchange dubbed Gopax which boasts the same trading engine which is utilized by Nasdaq featuring withdrawal & deposit support in both directions from all banks in operation in South Korea.

With major institutions such as Goldman Sachs, Fidelity, Morgan Stanley, Nasdaq, and NYSE all aggressively pursuing expansions into the cryptocurrency industry, Hong Joon-k stated that the Korean government, as well as local financial institutions, have indeed begun leading the charge in following the global trend of cryptocurrency adoption:

“In 1993, when I came to South Korea as a derivatives expert, the local market and the government considered derivatives to be dangerous and risky speculative vehicles. Fast forward nearly two decades, South Korea is issuing bonds and derivatives to enter overseas markets. Financial institutions in South Korea must seriously consider the cryptocurrency market and the government has to encourage financial institutions to serve cryptocurrency investors.”

Hong went on to add that security tokens will be a drastic catalyst as to the future of digital currencies and finance with major hedge funds & venture capital firms already investing in the security token market.

Hong went on to add:

“The global cryptocurrency market will shift to security tokens quickly. Venture capital, hedge funds, sports teams, real estate, artworks, and various types of assets will become tokenized on the blockchain. Global financial institutions are entering the crypto market with the vision of tokenizing and digitalizing existing assets and they are expanding their initiatives.”





The Long-Term Impacts:

Nasdaq, Goldman Sachs, FIdelity, and other institutions involvements in the crypto sector may not likely have much of an effect on the current short-term price trend of cryptocurrencies.

However, it must be noted that the efforts of the abovementioned institutions are in fact beginning to lead government authorities to start seeing the crypto industry from a positive perspective and ultimately lead them to consider digital currencies for what they are, an emerging and game-changing asset class.

Do you feel that the involvement of financial institutions are what the cryptocurrency industry needs? Could the arrival of traditional financial institutions be the beginning of worldwide adoption? Let us know your thoughts, by commenting below.

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