KB Kookmin Bank will extend its real-name deposit and withdrawal account partnership with cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb for another year. The bank decided to continue the arrangement after weighing gains such as new customer acquisition through Bithumb users and deposit inflows, according to sources.
Kookmin Bank and Bithumb have agreed to extend the real-name account partnership by one year and have asked the Korea Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) for approval, banking industry sources said on the 7th. Once approval is granted, the partnership will run through the end of September 2027.
Attention had turned to whether the contract would be renewed after Bithumb mistakenly credited bitcoin (BTC) to users earlier this year, but the two companies decided to maintain their existing partnership. The contract term was shortened to six months from one year after the incident, prompting speculation in some quarters that the partnership might be discontinued.
Analysts say account openings by cryptocurrency investors and inflows of trading funds have contributed to expanding the bank's customer base. Bithumb switched its real-name account partner bank from NH NongHyup Bank to Kookmin Bank on March 24 last year.
With Kookmin Bank and Bithumb opting to extend their contract, the lineup of real-name account partnerships between major banks and won-based exchanges is more likely to remain largely unchanged for the time being. KakaoBank extended its real-name account partnership with Coinone by one year last month. K Bank is also in talks with Upbit on a renewal. K Bank and Upbit have maintained their partnership since 2020.
