Bithumb, one of Korea’s biggest cryptocurrency exchanges has partnered with mobile money processor, Korea Pay Services in a bid to avail cryptocurrencies to thousands of retail stores across the East Asian nation.
Korea Pay Services is a mobile payment company that operates electronic payment transactions for over 8,000 retail outlets spread across the country. With Bithumb being among the most renowned crypto exchanges in South Korea, the partnership between the two companies will make crypto payments in South Korea a reality with some of the beneficiary outlets being Café Droptop, Todai, Yankee Candle and popular dessert café chain, Sulbing which has over 450 stores in the country.
Ripple is set to benefit greatly from the partnership as its popularity is South Korea rivals Bitcoin’s and Ethereum’s. With Bithumb accounting for over $600 million worth of trading, Ripple constitutes averagely 15% of this volume. This makes Bithumb among the exchanges with the highest volume of XRP traded in the world.
With Ripple’s transaction speed and scalability being light years ahead of both Ethereum and Bitcoin, it’s only natural that the people of South Korea will prefer using XRP to settle the retail transactions. Ripple also has among the lowest transaction charges in the crypto community which will be welcome by the retailers and the customers alike.
South Korea is renowned for its great enthusiasm for cryptocurrencies and could give Ripple the much needed market boost in the face of the high volatility being currently experienced in the market. Despite the regulatory uncertainty in South Korea, cryptocurrency enthusiasts have continued trading in cryptos in large volumes as they await more clarity in regards to crypto regulations.
It remains to be seen just how well the retail market will embrace cryptos in South Korea, but one thing is certain; Ripple will be the biggest beneficiary.
