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Quick Take
- Upbit Singapore obtained a Major Payment Institution license after getting the in-principle permit in October.
- Upbit’s South Korean exchange processes nearly half of spot cryptocurrency transactions in the local market, according to CoinMarketCap data.
South Korean crypto exchange Upbit’s Singapore affiliate has acquired a Major Payment Institution (MPI) license from the city-state’s top financial regulator. The license issued by the Monetary Authority of Singapore comes less than three months after the entity received the in-principle approval from the regulator in October. “Upbit Singapore is poised to be the nexus of institutional activities, capitalizing on Singapore's robust regulatory framework and its reputation as a leading financial center in Asia,” said the company’s founder and CEO Alex Kim in a statement on Monday. Upbit Singapore’s parent company, Upbit APAC, also operates crypto trading platforms in Thailand and Indonesia, according to the statement. In South Korea, Upbit exchange takes up around 48% of the total spot crypto trading volume, according to data from CoinMarketCap. It handled $4.2 billion worth of crypto transactions in the last 24 hours, the data showed. It is one of the five fully licensed exchanges in South Korea, along with Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit and Gopax. Upbit Singapore did not immediately respond to The Block’s request for further comments. Disclaimer: The Block is an independent media outlet that delivers news, research, and data. As of November 2023, Foresight Ventures is a majority investor of The Block. Foresight Ventures invests in other companies in the crypto space. Crypto exchange Bitget is an anchor LP for Foresight Ventures. The Block continues to operate independently to deliver objective, impactful, and timely information about the crypto industry. Here are our current financial disclosures. © 2023 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
About Author
Danny Park is an East Asia reporter at The Block writing on topics including Web3 developments and crypto regulations in the region. He was formerly a reporter at Forkast.News, where he actively covered the downfall of Terra-Luna and FTX. Based in Seoul, Danny has previously produced written and video content for media companies in Korea, Hong Kong and China. He holds a Bachelor of Journalism and Business Marketing from the University of Hong Kong.
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