Cryptocurrency Exchanges Paid 40.3 Billion KRW in Fees Last Year to Banks Providing Real-Name Accounts

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Jung-yoon] It has been confirmed that last year, domestic banks earned 40.3 billion KRW in real-name verified deposit and withdrawal account usage fees from cryptocurrency exchanges.

According to data submitted by the Financial Supervisory Service to Rep. Yoon Chang-hyun of the People Power Party on the 15th, the total account service usage fees paid last year by four cryptocurrency exchanges?Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, and Korbit?to banks with which they had real-name account issuance contracts amounted to 40.34 billion KRW.

Upbit paid 29.245 billion KRW to K Bank. This accounts for about 14% of K Bank's main source of income, interest income (198 billion KRW), and is even more than last year's net profit (22.5 billion KRW). Last year, K Bank succeeded in achieving an annual surplus for the first time since its launch. Additionally, the fees paid by Upbit to K Bank from the second to the fourth quarter of 2020, when the real-name account contract was signed, amounted to 932 million KRW, which increased 30-fold in one year.

Bithumb and Coinone paid 7.6 billion KRW and 2.648 billion KRW respectively to NH Nonghyup Bank, and Korbit paid 847 million KRW to Shinhan Bank. Bithumb and Coinone also paid 4 to 6 times the fees they paid in 2020 (1.835 billion KRW and 430 million KRW respectively), and Korbit paid about 8 times more fees last year compared to the previous year (119 million KRW).

The increase in fee amounts appears to be due to the rise in cryptocurrency investors as Bitcoin surged to a record high of 80 million KRW at one point last year.