Binance is Back in South Korea With Latest Acquisition: Report

Binance has purchased 41% of South Korean cryptocurrency exchange GOPAX, per local media

article-image

Source: Shutterstock / ESB Professional, modified by Blockworks

share

Crypto exchange giant Binance is once again making moves in South Korea, as it is reportedly acquiring a major stake in local exchange GOPAX.

According to Korean crypto news website Decenter, the largest centralized exchange in the world is finalizing an acquisition which was supposedly meant to close around Christmas last year. 

Binance will be buying a 41.2% stake from GOPAX CEO Lee Jun-Haeng, who will remain at the exchange once the sale is finalized.

GOPAX is already one of the five largest crypto exchanges in South Korea. A majority of the domestic market dominated by Upbit, followed by other popular exchanges Bithumb, Coinone and Korbit. 

A second attempt at South Korean market for Binance

If confirmed, the investment marks an evolution of Changpeng “CZ” Zhao’s strategy for the country; the centralized exchange previously terminated its operations in South Korea, citing low usage and limited trading volumes on its stablecoin BKRW, linked to the Korean won. 

“Following the closure of the exchange, the Binance KR team will reassess its market strategy based on the resources and experience gained from operating a local exchange,” the company wrote in a blog post dated Dec. 24, 2020.

The latest GOPAX acquisition may provide an alternative solution for Binance to enter a market known for its strict restrictions on digital asset operators.

That being said, South Korea is one of many on Binance’s expansion roadmap. 

The exchange has been actively making moves to expand its influence in cryptocurrency markets across the world, securing regulatory approvals in countries such as France, Italy, Spain, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, New Zealand, Kazakhstan, Poland, Lithuania and Cyprus.

Most recently, it acquired highly regulated cryptocurrency exchange Sakura Exchange BitCoin (SEBC) in Japan.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Brooklyn, NY

SUN - MON, JUN. 22 - 23, 2025

Blockworks and Cracked Labs are teaming up for the third installment of the Permissionless Hackathon, happening June 22–23, 2025 in Brooklyn, NY. This is a 36-hour IRL builder sprint where developers, designers, and creatives ship real projects solving real problems across […]

recent research

Unlocked by Template (7).png

Research

Union’s improvements upon Tendermint consensus through CometBLS, coupled with ZK proving through Galois, allow for a broadly scalable, cost efficient, and low latency IBC implementation that is feasibly scalable across every existing blockchain, virtual machine and runtime. The implementation offers modular crosschain interoperability without the need for trusted intermediaries.  

article-image

Kraken’s chief security officer Nick Percoco said the exchange turned the tables on a North Korean hacker

article-image

Or is it approximately the least cypherpunk thing we could do?

article-image

Over 20% of SOL-USD swap volume goes through SolFi

article-image

CEO Vlad Tenev calls expected clarity on listing crypto asset securities “a big opportunity”

article-image

Big Tech pulled US indexes back into the green Thursday, as investors waited for two more Mag 7 first-quarter reports after the bell

article-image

Charts and takeaways from Tuesday’s jobs report and Wednesday’s GDP print, as the economy digests the tariff war