The subsidiary of South Korean financial technology company Dunamu, DXM, is launching an institutional level cryptocurrency custody facility in partnership with crypto focused cybersecurity firm Ledger.
The financial service provider DXM intends to roll out the custodian service business, christened as Upbit Safe. Ledger Vault, custody division of Ledger, has assured to support the endeavor with its technology.
Upbit Safe will supposedly utilize Ledger’s hardware protection technology to ensure trading efficiency and safety for its institutional customers.
Glenn woo, Ledger’s head of Asia-Pacific region elaborated that Ledger Vault offers tools that facilitate institutions to tailor their custody terms and conditions as per their requirement.
DXM Chief Strategy Officer Eric yoo stated that the firm intends to market their product offering to UpBit’s clients’ in the initial stage. Yoo detailed on the latest outlook for the enterprise:
“We are a subsidiary of the largest exchange in Korea and have an advantage over our peers given that we already have a lot of assets we can bring into our custody. […] The combination of the Upbit brand, Ledger Vault’s security technology, and DXM’s own technology will give DXM an edge in the Korean market.”
Still, Yoo acknowledged that institutional involvement in the crypto sector in South Korea is largely affected by cloudy regulation. Nevertheless, he trusts that there will be an improvement in transparency in 2020, luring fresh funds to the domestic crypto sector.
“The biggest regulatory risk in Korea is uncertainty and lack of regulations. […] It’s quite a wild wild west out there. […] Once regulations become clearer, it’d be easier for us to engage with institutional money and not take the risks from uncertainties.”
Woo also pointed out that Ledger Vault is a new business in the crypto domain and it is still in the initial stage of reaching potential customers. He believes that DXM will be able to assist in scaling operations.
“DMX has a reputation of being very secure… With the track record that they have in Korea, they can definitely help us scale.”
In the past few years, the number of organizations opening shop to offer crypto custody services is on the rise as regulations is transforming the sector as more relevant for institutional investors.
In this regard, a notable example is the custody facility rolled out by institutional Bitcoin (BTC) trading platform Bakkt for all of its clients after receiving regulatory clearance in the beginning of November.
