A Fintech Startup in South Korea Introduces ‘First’ Won-Backed Stablecoin
This year seems interesting in the context of Stablecoin as it is gaining more and more acceptance in the market. Many crypto firms have adopted the fiat currency pegged Stablecoin, perhaps due to less amount of risk.
On Jan 29, a South Korean fintech company BxB Inc. has announced the launch of its Stablecoin which is backed by the Korean won (KRWb). Supposedly it is the first Stablecoin in the country to be backed by the South Korean fiat currency, Won. The ratio at which the digital currency is pegged with the national currency is 1:1. The company talks about the newly introduced cryptocurrency in the press release. It notes that KRWb is the “first ERC-20 compatible, globally accessible and collateralized Stablecoin pegged to deposits of Korean won.”
Moreover, the co-Founder of BxB Inc, Alex Friedberg revealed earlier this month that prior to the release of the Stablecoin on the global and Korean exchange, the cryptocurrency had an initial beta soft launch on Airswap. Airswap serves as a decentralized exchange platform. The crypto coin is specially designed to deal with the capital control-heavy Korean market. It is built on the concepts of Stablecoins like USDT, TUSD and other fiat-backed coins. BxB Inc further states, “Every KRWb token generated will be matched with an equivalent KRW deposit into the KRWb treasury that is securely stored in a bank account managed by BxB Inc.”
On this, Hwan Kim, CEO at BxB Inc expressed, “We’re excited to announce and bring to the global community the world’s first provably collateralized Korean Won backed Stablecoin.” Kim adds, “We hope that over time we can grow beyond just a cryptocurrency into a new fiat-to-crypto solution that improves the way we do business in and out of Korea.”
Reportedly, the fintech carried out the mining and burning process of KRWb for improved liquidity using an Ethereum-based smart contract. The firm has also deployed a multi-signature checkpoint and a third-party auditor for the same. KRWb will be globally available with any ERC-20 compatible wallets. At present, KRWb is available on three exchanges. Also, BxB Inc. is currently in discussions with South Korean and global exchanges regarding its plans to declare additional listings in Q1 2019.
