Binance CEO Richard Teng has reportedly made a secret visit to South Korea in an effort to directly engage with domestic financial authorities and find a resolution to the hurdles facing the company’s entry into the Korean market.
According to a recent report by News 1 , Teng arrived in Korea on an undisclosed schedule last week, intending to communicate with financial authorities, including officials from the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), during his visit.
The move comes as Binance’s plan to find a direct line into the high-volume South Korean market with the acquisition of a majority stake in the South Korean crypto exchange Gopax has hit a barricade.
Binance acquired Gopax at the end of 2022 as part of its strategy to penetrate the Korean market.
However, the acceptance of Gopax’s change of virtual asset business report by financial authorities has been delayed for over a year, impeding Binance’s plans for market entry.
Binance’s decision to acquire Gopax was driven by the latter’s inability to return funds to users following the FTX incident involving its virtual asset deposit service, ‘GoFi.’
Binance took on the responsibility for GoFi’s debt when it became the majority shareholder, appointing Leon Singh Pung, the former head of Binance Asia Pacific, as CEO of Gopax.
Despite submitting a report on the change in virtual asset business to the FIU, the decision regarding its acceptance has been consistently postponed.
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