The crypto sector in South Korean was left reeling after all, but four of the country’s trading platforms removed their fiat on/off ramp services and KRW pairings, or completely ceased operations. The platforms had been told to secure banking partnerships based on real-name authentications and also get information security management system (ISMS) certified by today in order to continue their operations. Having just ISMS certification would make the exchanges eligible for offering only crypto-to-crypto services and banking partnerships are required for KRW-related business. Consequently, only the four biggest exchanges in South Korea i.e. Coinone, Upbit, Korbit and Bithumb that had already established banking deals with their partners would be permitted to offer KRW-related services to their clients tomorrow.

However, this is not certain in the long run because regulators are still going over the applications of the four exchanges and it could take up to three months for them issue operating permits. Furthermore, banking contracts are only in effect for six months and if a partner pulls out after the six months, the relevant exchange would not be able to offer KRW services. People who were doing business with the other platforms now have to decide what they are going to do with their coins and money. 

This is around 2.2 million account holders who have around USD 2 billion worth of fiat and tokens. A small group of exchanges had attempted to enter into banking deals, with a few negotiations going down to the wire. Having 566,608 account holders, Gopax turned out to be the last one that threw in the towel. It posted on its website that the bank it was negotiating with said that concluding a deal would be difficult. Having 337,981 account holders, Huobi Korea had also made a similar attempt, but accepted defeat on the morning of 24th September. 

The other larger and non-big four platforms chose to open altcoin-to-bitcoin (BTC) markets for the convenience of their customers who are holding altcoins. Nonetheless, this fallout will probably widen because until today, there were a total of 63 exchanges operating in South Korea. There is some confusion regarding the number, as some claim there were 66. The big four platforms will certainly reap the benefits because they are likely to see an influx of customers who will no longer be able to use the other exchanges for KRW services. According to some media outlets, almost 30 of the exchanges have completely shut down, but the full extent of the damage will only become clear from next week onwards.

Appeals for more time and clemency made by the industry as well as politicians were rejected by the regulators. Instead, they told customers to file reports to the police and the Financial Supervisory Service if the exchanges don’t approve their withdrawal requests. All exchanges have also been informed that if they decide to cease operations, they have to give at least 30 days to their clients for making a withdrawal. This outcome is likely to create a near monopoly in the South Korean crypto market. 

Since the year 2020 turned into the year 2021, the non-fungible token (NFT) ecosystem has experienced a significant rise in demand and supply. This is the reason why most of the major cryptocurrency trading exchanges have now started adopting non-fungible tokens.

At present, the growth rate of the non-fungible token industry is parabolic and it is one of the most profitable spaces within the crypto-verse. The latest cryptocurrency exchange that has decided to adopt and explore non-fungible tokens is FTX.

FTX is currently ranked as one of the largest and top cryptocurrency exchanges in the entire cryptocurrency industry. It is making itself known globally by adding more and more jurisdictions and the recent addition is The Bahamas.

The exchange is determined that its users not only get to profit/benefit from cryptocurrencies but also from non-fungible tokens. Therefore, the exchange has announced that it is adopting non-fungible token technology and will be adding its innovation into the sector.

Following the announcement of adopting non-fungible token technology, the FTX exchange has revealed that it will soon be opening up a marketplace for non-fungible tokens. The exchange has clarified that for now, the NFT marketplace would only be accessible for users based in the United State.

Through the non-fungible token marketplace, the users based in the United States will be able to benefit a lot from their new service. The users will reportedly be abler to mint non-fungible tokens. They would also be able to buy the non-fungible tokens from the marketplace, as well as sell non-fungible tokens to earn profits.

One of the best features they will be able to offer their users is the ability to perform cross-chain trades for the non-fungible tokens. For now, the blockchains the users will be able to interact with include Solana and Ethereum blockchains.

FTX has announced that in the upcoming days, it will be launching the depositing and withdrawal facilities through the NFT marketplace. Once the depositing feature has been launched, the users will be able to deposit external non-fungible tokens into the FTX NFT marketplace.

In order to demonstrate its new market for the users, FTX has even released an image that is in the word-art style. There is no particular reason that the particular word-art serves, but only reads “Test”.

This is the first-ever NFT that will be sold through the FTX NFT marketplace. So far, the bid on the particular image has been set to $1,100.

According to the majority of the high-profile investors and the operatives from the cryptocurrency industry, NFT’s growth is just the beginning. The sector has caught the attention of the crypto-industry and mainstream sector alike. Therefore, the sector is only going to grow larger with time and make its name known throughout the world.