Cryptocurrency exchanges are not that difficult to come by these days. Virtually every country has such a trading platform, although they are not necessarily all that popular. In South Korea, the competition is heating up, to say the least. Kakao is launching a cryptocurrency exchange alongside its stock trading app. The trades will occur through the mobile Kakao Talk app, which is used by over 200 million users. An intriguing development, to say the least.

More competition among mobile cryptocurrency trading platforms is a good thing. After all, a lot of consumers want more convenience in this regard. Focusing on mobile solutions makes a lot of sense for companies. Kakao acknowledges there are opportunities waiting to be explored. The company’s Kakao Stock app is very popular in South Korea. It is one of the nation’s top mobile stock trading apps. Considering how it is based on Kakao Talk, that makes a lot of sense. Launching a cryptocurrency exchange venture is not all that easy, though.

Kakao Embraces the Cryptocurrency Exchange Business Model

Through the Stock app, Kakao Talk users can purchase stocks from within the messaging ecosystem. Moreover, they receive real-time stock quotes as well. There are no additional transaction fees for this service either, which is pretty significant. It is believed this upcoming cryptocurrency exchange will operate in a similar manner. It will provide support for currencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and a few others. A smart move by the parent company, as they have been working on the exchange for several months now.

It will be interesting to see how this new cryptocurrency will be received. The company’s Kakao Stock app has received a lot of praise to date. It has over 300,000 monthly active users so far. Its transaction volume surpassed $1.2t trillion Won as well. All of this shows bringing such features to existing Kakao Talk users can have a big impact. We can only hope the cryptocurrency exchange will see similar results. There is no guarantee for success in this regard, though. Additionally, there are a few prominent exchanges in South Korea already, including Bithumb and Coinone.

That being said, the parent company feels they can make a big impact. Kakao Talk is the nation’s most popular social messaging app. Integrating new functionality will always be appreciated. Some users will give it a try and hopefully keep using it moving forward. For now, the platform has no official Kakao-brand name just yet, but that situation will change in the near future. There’s no official release date for this platform either, unfortunately. Still, it’s quite significant to have such a well-respected brand embark on a cryptocurrency exchange journey. This can only have positive results for Bitcoin and Ethereum moving forward.

Header image courtesy of Shutterstock