Bithumb, Coinone, and Korbit Join Hands to Combat Money Laundering

Leading global cryptocurrency exchanges Bithumb, Coinone, and Korbit announced today that they are coming together for a joint venture, CODE (COnnect Digital Exchanges).

As per reports, the three companies will work together to build a ‘travel rule’ system. For this, they will have a total investment of 900 million won between them. The new-established corporation will help them abide by the Travel Rule, an anti-money laundering rule established in 2019. Moreover, each exchange will own one-third equal shares and voting rights.

Initially, the CEO will be Cha Myung-hoon, who is CEO of Coinone right now. Later, the representative directors appointed by the three companies will take turns to serve as CEO every two years.

For now, the exchanges are developing individual systems to take care of requirements by the Financial Action Task Force. They will also link the systems under development to synchronize them accordingly. In fact, CODE will be ready to go as soon as March 2022. As per the companies, it will adhere to revisions of the Specific Financial Transaction Information Act

About the project’s future plans, a CODE official stated:

In the future, the joint venture plans to secure the best scalability by linking with international standards.

By setting up this joint company, the exchanges hope to establish data monitoring and sharing systems that will align with the travel rule.

In light of recent developments in the country, some banks have required exchanges to have tougher mechanisms against money laundering. Along with this, the Travel Rule will apply when transferring cryptocurrency worth 1 million won or more, starting from March 25, 2022.