Bithumb, Coinone, and Korbit are hiring staff faster than South Korea's banks and financial institutions. South Korean broadcasters, including YTN, have documented the hiring surge at Bithumb, which h
Bithumb, Coinone, and Korbit are hiring staff faster than South Korea's banks and financial institutions. South Korean broadcasters, including YTN, have documented the hiring surge at Bithumb, which handles more than $2.6 billion per day in cryptocurrency trades. The exchange has been recruiting talent and specialists from the country's finance sector at a rate that outpaces major banks and financial services firms.
The staffing expansion began after the government demanded that local trading platforms establish themselves as regulated financial entities. An emergency regulatory meeting on December 13 set the government's new direction. Seoul has since moved to regulate the cryptocurrency market and implement stricter rules for exchanges.
Bithumb welcomed the shift in an interview with Reuters. "A right set of regulations will rather nurture the (virtual currency) market, and we would welcome that," the company said.
The government had resisted cryptocurrency regulation for over three years, concerned it would signal official acceptance to the public. Investor demand from South Korea changed the calculation. Seoul moved to regulate to protect its citizens. Manual Know Your Customer and Anti-Money Laundering became untenable with the existing staff as volumes surged.
Binance disclosed that it added more than 250,000 users in a single day this week. Bithumb, the second-largest exchange, appears to add at least 100,000 new users each day. Binance CEO Chang Peng Zhao described the strain: "Sorry guys, servicing existing members is higher priority at this point. Full team working around the clock. Both tech and support. Just too much demand. Added 250,000 new users in the last 24 hours."
In 2017, Bithumb expanded its operations to meet demand from bitcoin investors and financial sector clients. The company opened a physical exchange location in mid-2017 to better serve new and institutional investors. South Korean exchanges are expected to keep scaling their operations into 2018 as they service continued cryptocurrency interest from traditional finance.
