A Memorandum of Understanding for cooperation in the bitcoin and blockchain sector between the two companies may boost the popularity of the cryptocurrency and help to establish new financial services.

The document was signed at the Daishin Securities headquarters in Seoul on 14 April, as reported by Business Korea. Na Jae-Cheol, CEO of Daishin Securities, and Cha Myung-hoon, CEO of Coinone, were both present at the ceremony.

Daishin Securities, established in 1962, is a huge company specialising in securities and in investment banking. It employs more than 2,000 people and has about 80 branch offices in South Korea, plus ones in Tokyo, Shanghai and Hong Kong.

Coinone is a blockchain startup founded in 2014. It runs a bitcoin exchange and offers its clients multi-sig wallets and bitcoin remittances. In addition, it launched Ethereum trading last week.

As the first step of the new partnership, it is planned to launch a bitcoin to Korean Won exchange and offer bitcoin wallets to all Daishin Securities customers. Next, the companies suggest developing a range of (yet unspecified) financial services based on bitcoin and blockchain.

Over the recent period various East-Asian financial businesses has been showing a keen interest in fintech innovations. Hong Kong’s annual investment into the sector reached $2.1 billion this year. At the same time, Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong declared that learning the advantages of bitcoin’s blockchain is the best way to modernise Singapore. In March 2016, virtual currencies were recognised as legal means of payment in Japan. Mizuho Bank, one of the largest in Japan, and Fujitsu, the leading Japanese information and communication company, have announced a successful trial of blockchain for cross-border securities transaction settlements and are ready to implement the new method.

Alexey Tereshchenko