Korbit is a South Korean centralized cryptocurrency exchange (CEX). Considered the world’s first Bitcoin (BTC)-Korean won (KRW) exchange, it offers a spot market, virtual deposits, staking and an NFT marketplace.
The Korbit crypto exchange adheres to KYC regulations set by the South Korean financial authorities. Non-national trader activities are restricted. It’s available on desktop and mobile devices.
Markets
The main service provided is the Korbit spot market. Margin or leveraged trading is unavailable. There are also no derivatives markets. Although KRW is the only supported fiat currency, the USDC stablecoin has been listed.
The exchange follows South Korean financial regulations. Therefore, the list of approved Korbit trading pairs is considerably smaller than on other platforms. It supports crypto-crypto and crypto-KRW trading.
All Korbit exchange fees for traders use a multi-tier maker-taker model. The price indices are expressed in KRW. Overall, there are nine tiers with ranging fee rates. Korbit does not provide special discounts or offers. There is only one account type for all users.
The fee tiers are determined by the 30-day Korbit trade volume. At tier 1, the required volume is up to 100 million KRW, and the maker/taker fees are 0.08% and 0.2%, respectively. The taker fee is the same in the first four tiers.
At tier 5, the required Korbit volume is between 2 billion and 10 billion KRW. The maker fee is 0.01%, while the taker fee is 0.15%. Throughout tiers 5–9, no maker fees apply. At tier 9, takers have to pay Korbit crypto fees of 0.015%.
Deposits and withdrawals apply to both crypto and fiat currencies. The deposit/withdrawal Korbit crypto price is denominated in KRW. Deposits are free of charge. Withdrawal fees are asset-specific.
The platform supports debit and credit card deposits, as well as bank transfers. Bank charges may apply when using fiat deposit/withdrawal services.
Other Services
Staking is enabled for Korbit spot exchange users. The platform supports post-Merge Ethereum (ETH) staking. Customers can earn passive income by staking their assets. Additionally, the virtual deposit feature lets users earn rewards based on their deposited Korbit crypto price value.
The NFT Marketplace is a platform where Korbit users can mint, buy, sell, and trade non-fungible tokens (NFTs). It supports ERC-721 tokens and uses ETH as the primary payment method. All NFTs can be stored on user accounts.
About the Company
The Korbit cryptocurrency exchange was founded in 2013 by Tony Lyu, Louis Jinhwa Kim, and Kangmo Kim. It’s known as the first BTC-KRW exchange in the world. The company headquarters are in Seoul, South Korea. The current CEO is Sejin Oh.
In September 2017, South Korean media conglomerate Nexon signed a deal with Korbit to acquire 65% of the crypto exchange. The deal was valued at $80 million, making Nexon’s parent company NXC the biggest Korbit shareholder.
In 2019, the platform reinforced its KYC policy following changes in national regulations. Users were no longer able to trade or invest anonymously. Additional regulatory restrictions apply to non-Korean nationals using Korbit.
In May 2021, Korbit launched the first South Korean NFT marketplace. It was announced that all transactions would be completed using Ethereum (ETH) and would offer an auction feature.
In December 2021, the South Korean industrial conglomerate SK Group bought a 35% stake in the Korbit crypto exchange. The purchase was valued at over $75 million, making SK Square, the company under SK Group, the second-largest shareholder of the exchange.
In 2022, Korbit shared that the employees would receive NFTs as identification cards. The employee tokens were minted in June. The goal of switching to NFT IDs was to build a sense of community in the company.
In June 2022, following the collapse of the Terra and Luna cryptocurrencies, Korbit was one of the five South Korean exchanges to form a consultative body concerning the healthy development of the crypto industry. The Korbit crypto exchange is the monitoring body of the crypto market.
Tony Lyu is a venture capitalist and the former CEO of the Korbit crypto exchange. He’s currently the Venture Partner at Softbank Ventures Asia. Lyu stepped away from Korbit in 2018. He was succeeded by Jason Park, who stayed on as the CEO until December 2019.
Since January 2020, Sejin Oh has been the CEO of Korbit. Before taking this role, he acted as the company’s Chief Strategy Officer. Oh is a financial expert who has worked with globally renowned companies such as HSBC and Barclays.
Louis Jinhwa Kim is an entrepreneur and the former Director of Korbit. Kim is known as the author of “Next Money Bitcoin”, considered one of the first books on Bitcoin in South Korea. He has co-founded several social and financial companies over the years. In 2017, Kim co-founded the Korea Blockchain Association.
Kangmo Kim is a software developer and the former CTO of Korbit. He has over two decades of experience in software development and engineering. Kim stepped away from the Korbit cryptocurrency exchange in 2015. He also acted as the CEO of ScaleChain until 2021.
