Korbit, a domestic virtual asset exchange, announced on the 3rd that it has released an infographic showcasing its achievements on the occasion of its 10th anniversary.
Founded on July 5, 2013, Korbit was the first virtual asset exchange in Korea and holds several firsts, including the first domestic trades of Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Korbit has attracted attention by introducing various policies even after the domestic industry began to be incorporated into the regulatory framework in 2021. First, in January last year, Korbit issued real-name accounts for corporations, establishing a process that allows corporations to actually invest in virtual assets.
Following various incidents related to virtual assets such as the Terra-Luna crisis and the FTX bankruptcy last year, the soundness of virtual asset exchange operations became a hot topic. Korbit took the lead in strengthening internal controls and introducing policies to foster a desirable virtual asset investment culture. A representative example is the Korbit Research Center, which opened in November 2021 as the first in the industry. Led by Research Center Director Jeong Seok-moon, who has over 20 years of experience in New York’s financial sector, the Korbit Research Center strives to resolve information asymmetry in virtual asset investments. It publishes in-depth reports analyzing the virtual asset industry on average once a week and releases special reports on various issues.
Additionally, the Korbit Research Center actively communicates with customers through Korbit’s YouTube channel, which has the highest number of subscribers among the top five exchanges.
Moreover, since November last year, Korbit has been the first in Korea to update and disclose its virtual asset holdings and wallet addresses daily. In April this year, Korbit became the first in the industry to sign a contract with the comprehensive credit rating company KCB for collecting deceased persons’ information. While traditional financial institutions such as banks and insurance companies can inquire about and freeze the assets of deceased persons, virtual asset exchanges have so far been excluded from services related to heirs’ financial transaction details. Through this contract, Korbit has resolved difficulties in identifying deceased users and strengthened user protection measures.
In terms of internal controls related to financial reporting, Korbit completed the SOC 1 Type 1 procedure, a global standard certification in this field, for the first time in Korea this February. In the security domain, Korbit became the first domestic exchange to simultaneously hold four ISO certifications for information security and personal information management systems in August 2021.
From a business perspective, Korbit was the first to open a non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace in May 2021. It also donated 160 million KRW earned from selling the naming rights of the first Bitcoin and Ethereum trades as NFTs to the Nexus Children's Rehabilitation Hospital. In February last year, Korbit introduced a recurring investment service for the first time, helping people interested in virtual assets invest easily and conveniently with small amounts.
Meanwhile, Korbit also disclosed key data from the past 10 years. The cumulative number of Korbit members, which was 22,000 at the end of 2013, has grown to 1.36 million. The cumulative transaction volume, which was 20 billion KRW in the founding year, has increased to 91.7 trillion KRW. The gender distribution of customers shows that males (69%) outnumber females (31%) by more than twice. By age group, customers in their 30s (31%) are the largest, followed by those in their 40s (27%) and 20s (19%).
Regarding platform usage, transactions via the mobile application (73%) far exceed those on the web (27%). Trading activity is highest on Fridays during the week, and the busiest time within 24 hours is between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. The most traded virtual assets on Korbit are Bitcoin, Ripple, and Ethereum, in that order.
Notably, Korbit has distinguished itself from other exchanges in terms of virtual asset listing and delisting over the past decade. Until 2020, Korbit had supported trading for only 35 virtual assets. Compared to Upbit and Bithumb, the top two exchanges in the industry, which supported around 150 virtual assets at that time, this number was very small. However, in 2021, while undergoing review by financial authorities to obtain a Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) license, Korbit newly supported trading for 49 virtual assets in just one year. It has continued to introduce new virtual assets to customers last year and this year, bringing the total number of supported virtual assets to 136.
On the other hand, Korbit has delisted only 15 virtual assets up to this year, the fewest among the top five exchanges. Starting with three delistings in March 2019, six in 2020, and none in 2021.
CEO Oh Se-jin of Korbit said, "Ten years ago, when even the word Bitcoin was unfamiliar, Korbit played an important role as a pioneer in Korea’s virtual asset industry in shaping the current market. This year marks the first year of the virtual asset industry law and the beginning of Korbit’s new decade. In line with the shareholders’ principle of righteous management, we will take the lead as a responsible leader in the virtual asset industry to establish a sound virtual asset investment culture in Korea and grow into a model exchange in the market."
To celebrate its 10th anniversary, Korbit is conducting a customer survey and a writing contest. All participating customers will receive a Korbit 10th anniversary commemorative NFT via airdrop, and among the 705 writing contest participants, winners will be selected by lottery to receive up to 300,000 KRW worth of Bitcoin and Korbit 10th anniversary commemorative goods.
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