South Korea's Bitcoin exchange Korbit announces the launch of Hyphen, cross-border transaction aggregator based on blockchain. The system will be available for payouts in six currencies in 24 countries.

The platform, covering the US, China, Australia, Philippines and most of Europe, also provides arbitrage opportunities, making currency exchange rates much cheaper and more risk-proof than current mid-market services, according to the company's press-release.

The main target audience of Hyphen is online marketplaces, consumer apps and financial services. The platform is expected to go fully operational in March.

Hyphen is claimed to have a wide multipurpose use, from direct-to-bank fund transmissions to payroll services and reward programs. The payment fee is 1% of the amount transferred.

Korbit decided last year to expand its business portfolio, adding an international remittance feature. At first the company planned to partner with multiple payout services in different countries, but it proved to be too expensive and inefficient. Instead, Korbit turned an infrastructure provider itself.

“We act as an integration partner for companies looking to make cross-border payments on this new, evolved value-transfer rail. It’s not as glamorous as being the brand that interfaces directly with the end-users, but someone has to do the plumbing work,” said Tony Lyu, CEO of Korbit.

Korbit was established in April 2013 as a wallet and payment operator services. In July 2015 it created Bitwire, a fee-free platform for sending money to South Korean banks. The company claims it has processed over US$100 million in asset exchange and transfer using this service, totally based on distributed ledger technology.

Platonova Elena