As reported by South Korean media, the South Korean KB Kookmin Bank will soon launch a digital asset management service called KBDAC, which will support cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH).
The KBDAC tool is an acronym for KB Digital Asset Custody, as documented by the trademark registration request which is dated January 31st, 2020, hence a fairly recent document.
The application for the trademark to be approved will take from 6 months to 2 years, so it is difficult to predict if and when the tool will become fully operational as a service for its customers.
In fact, the trademark registration request is not necessarily related to the service. If it is not approved, the platform could simply decide to change its name with a rebranding.
It should be noted that in June of last year, the bank collaborated with Atomix Lab for the development of a blockchain-based technology that would allow it to manage various types of digital assets, thus not only cryptocurrencies.
The technology made available by the service will also allow splitting the wallet’s private keys into many pieces so as to minimize the risk for the bank to be attacked and lose customer funds.
In South Korea, all the documentation for this project, as well as the approval of the new financial tools, is subject to the Financial Services Commission and the Financial Supervisory Service, and if it were approved then it would result in a bank managing cryptocurrencies for the first time in the Asian country.
Finally, it’s worth mentioning that already in Italy a bank, Banca Sella, has implemented the possibility to buy and sell, as well as exchange, bitcoin online thanks to Hype, all conveniently via the mobile app.
