How South Korea's Largest Exchange Plans to Allow Millions to Use Cryptocurrency

Bithumb, South Korea's largest cryptocurrency exchange, is on a mission to drastically improve the adoption of digital currencies in the country and evolve into a bank-like business to ensure its users can use cryptocurrencies with ease, like cash.

Previously, some local businesses like Coinplug, a Tim Draper-backed cryptocurrency wallet and payment processing company, attempted to popularize cryptocurrency ATMs to increase the liquidity of digital assets and ease the process of purchasing and selling cryptocurrencies for beginner users.

The cafe gained popularity amongst local cryptocurrency enthusiasts and eventually began to host Bitcoin meetups and conferences due to the presence of the Bitcoin ATM.However, because the awareness of Bitcoin and the cryptocurrency market in general within South Korea was virtually non-existent in 2014, Coinplug moved away from directly manufacturing cryptocurrency ATMs and kiosks to helping traditional ATM manufacturers integrate cryptocurrencies.

At Deconomy, Bithumb senior vice president Lee Jeong-ah emphasized that the entrance into the cryptocurrency ATM and kiosk sector by Bithumb would allow the business to continue to evolve as a bank-like figure in the local cryptocurrency market.

During his stay in Seoul, Ver demonstrated Bithumb's cryptocurrency kiosk located at a food court that is designed to accept payments from users purchasing food with cryptocurrency.

Roger Ver April 10, 2018 As shown above by Ver, Bithumb's kiosks are actually actively being used by users to purchase food and other products at fast food chains and restaurants, and Bithumb plans to aggressively permeate the kiosk market to increase the adoption of cryptocurrency by casual and beginner users.

In South Korea however, despite past efforts to allow underground malls and restaurants to accept cryptocurrency, the adoption of digital currencies as a payment method struggled to take off.

The biggest underground mall in Seoul has been accepting Bitcoin since 2017, but when cryptocurrency users visited the site, the majority of merchants were not aware of it and did not know how to process cryptocurrency payments.

The integration of cryptocurrency by the country's two largest online businesses in their respective sectors and the placement of cryptocurrency kiosks at food courts and fast food chains will likely lead to a surge in the adoption of cryptocurrency as a payment method, and may have an impact in South Korea similar to that of Bitflyer and other Japanese exchanges in Japan.

There are 490 Sulbing retail stores throughout the country, and its brand power within the country could match that of Starbucks in the U.S.By allowing users to carry barcodes that act as debit cards which receive payments directly from users' cryptocurrency wallets, Bithumb is attempting to increase the adoption of cryptocurrency in South Korea by easing the process of transacting with existing digital currencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum.