The revenues of the South Korean cryptocurrency exchanges in 2017 increased eighty times from 2016, reports the Yonhap agency, quoting data of Park Kwang-on, an MP from the ruling Democratic Party.
According to the data which was collected with the help of the government, and based on sales of commissions of each operators, the accumulated commissions of some 30 cryptocurrency exchange operators have reached in the ballpark of 700 billion won (US$648 million) as of the end of 2017. In comparison, at the end of 2016 the sum stood at 8 billion won.
The Upbit exchange generated more than half of South Korea’s cryptocurrency exchange revenues in 2017 with a share of 52.9% (194.3 billion won), followed by Bithumb (32.7% or 317.7 billion), Coinone (8.3% or 78.1 billion) and Korbit (6.2% or 67 billion).
Hong Nam-ki, South Korea’s minister of the Office for Government Policy Coordination, said earlier this month that the authorities would focus of making cryptocurrency trading transparent rather than outlawing it altogether.