South Korean conglomerate Kakao is reportedly considering between two exchanges – one Chinese, one Korean – upon which to list its ‘klay’ cryptocurrency.
Korean news service News1 reported that primary among the criteria to be considered is the South Korean government’s stance on cryptocurrencies. It banned initial coin offerings in 2017 and has made it difficult for exchanges to operate within the country’s financial services industry, so it is not easy for customers to withdraw funds in fiat currencies.
A source, quoted in the News1 report suggested that Kakao was too big a company to ignore and that the government would likely make it difficult for the company to trade its cryptocurreny domestically.
U-Turn
A Chinese exchange, therefore, may be preferable for the company, which operates in several different business sectors including telecoms, payments, venture capital, commerce and gaming. But it appears that the decision to list is something of a U-turn for the company.
Kakao, which has its own blockchain venture called Ground X, was initially to have only used the klay cryptocurrency as a utility token for developers seeking to access Ground X’s Klaytn public blockchain platform.
