South Korea

South Korea has ordered local access to Polymarket blocked, citing alleged violations tied to gambling activity. The move places the country among a growing group of jurisdictions restricting the prediction market platform.

Bithumb is preparing for a potential initial public offering in 2028 after reorganizing its business and moving to strengthen internal controls. The South Korean crypto exchange plans to complete risk and accounting upgrades by the end of 2026 before seeking a preliminary listing review in 2027.

South Korea is preparing to tax annual cryptocurrency gains above 2.5 million won from Jan. 1, 2027, at a combined rate of up to 22%. The plan still faces political resistance, with critics warning that the lack of loss carry-forwards could pressure domestic crypto activity.

POSCO International is working with LG CNS to tokenize live trade receivables on the Injective blockchain, using real commercial activity between overseas operations and counterparties. The pilot highlights how South Korean corporates are extending blockchain adoption from funds and stablecoin transfers into trade finance infrastructure.

Mirae Asset Consulting has become the largest shareholder in Korbit after taking a 97.15% stake in South Korea’s first homegrown cryptocurrency exchange. The move places Korbit inside the wider Mirae Asset Group family without changing the exchange’s operating company or disrupting customer services.

Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix plan to pour about $518 billion into new chip facilities, a move aimed at doubling South Korea’s DRAM output and meeting surging AI demand. The scale of the investment underscores how aggressively capital is rotating into AI infrastructure just as crypto markets struggle for momentum.

Chainlink has joined Project Pangea, a banking coalition focused on real-time stablecoin settlement for cross-border foreign exchange trades. The initiative aims to reduce settlement risk and preserve existing Swift and ISO 20022 workflows.

The resurgence of the “Kimchi premium” in South Korea, marked by a 10% Bitcoin price difference between local exchanges and global platforms, has caught the attention of market observers. This arbitrage strategy, initially popularized by Sam Bankman-Fried, involves buying Bitcoin globally and selling it on Korean exchanges for a riskless profit in Korean won. However, challenges arise in converting these gains into actual profits due to South Korea’s stringent capital controls.