South Korea’s Shinhan Bank to Offer Safe Bitcoin Wallets

Shinhan Bank, the second largest bank in South Korea, announced it is testing its bitcoin vault and wallet services.

The news comes after the recent hacking attack on Bithumb, one of the largest exchanges in the world operating in Korea. A Shinhan representative said the new service would be more secure than outside services. It will offer deposits with no fee, but a minimal fee will be charged upon withdrawal.

“Shinhan is testing a virtual bitcoin vault platform wherein the private keys of bitcoin addresses and wallets are managed and issued by the bank,” the representative said. “The bank intends to provide the vault service for free and charge a fee for withdrawals.”

The bank also plans to build peripheral infrastructure to serve its bitcoin ecosystem, including mobile apps and statistics and analysis portals.

Shinhan Bank, the main subsidiary of Shinhan Financial Group, started as a small enterprise with a capital stock of 25 billion Korean Won, 279 employees, and three branches on July 7, 1982. Today, it has transformed itself into a large bank, boasting total assets of US$260 billion and over 13,000 employees.

Last year, Shinhan became the first major financial institution in the region to utilize the bitcoin blockchain. The bank, in collaboration with Seoul-based blockchain remittance startup Streami, launched an overseas bitcoin remittance service between Korea and China through an intermediary country Hong Kong.