Richard Tang, CEO of Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, has been confirmed to have secretly visited Korea. It is interpreted that he has initiated direct communication with domestic financial authorities to resolve the stalemate in Binance's entry into the Korean market.

Binance acquired Gopax at the end of 2022, signaling its entry into the Korean market. However, the financial authorities have been reluctant to approve Gopax's virtual asset operator change report for over a year, posing obstacles to Binance's entry into Korea.

According to <News1>'s investigation results on the 28th, CEO Richard Tang entered Korea the previous day for undisclosed appointments. During this visit, he is expected to attempt communication with officials from the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) and other financial authorities.

Binance opted for the acquisition of Gopax as its gateway to entering Korea at the end of 2022. When Gopax's virtual asset custody service 'Gopay' became unable to refund users due to the aftermath of the FTX incident, Binance decided to assume responsibility for Gopay's debts as well.

As Binance became the major shareholder, Gopax appointed Leon Sing Pung, the former Binance Asia-Pacific representative, as its CEO. Consequently, Gopax submitted a virtual asset operator change report to the FIU, but the FIU has continually delayed making a decision on it.

Subsequently, Gopax replaced its CEO with Jeong Jooyoung and submitted the change report again, but the FIU again postponed its decision. Currently, Beflaps (formerly City Labs), a KOSDAQ-listed company, has acquired a portion of Binance's stake in Gopax, and the CEO has been changed once again to Jo Young-joong, the former CEO of City Labs.

The reason the financial authorities have not accepted Gopax's change report is due to the judicial risks associated with Binance. At the end of last year, Binance was fined a "fine bomb" of $4.3 billion (approximately 5.5 trillion won) by the U.S. Department of Justice.

As a result, financial authorities are raising questions about the suitability of Binance's major shareholder status from a "major shareholder suitability" perspective. In particular, the FIU is pushing for an amendment to the Specific Financial Information Act (Special Financial Information Act) to expand the review targets for virtual asset operator renewal reports in the latter half of this year to include "major shareholders" in addition to current operators and executives.

Due to the FIU's stern stance, Binance officially announced earlier this year that it would sell a portion of its stake in Gopax and step down as the major shareholder.

Furthermore, the FIU recently demanded that Gopax submit improvement plans and implementation plans for its ownership structure through Jeonbuk Bank, Gopax's partner bank for real-name account partnerships, by the end of March. In response, Gopax sent a request to Gopay users last month to convert their debts into shares. This is intended to increase the stake of Gopay users, thereby reducing Binance's stake.

During this visit, CEO Richard Tang is expected to discuss such ownership structure improvement plans with government officials and devise strategies to rescue Gopax.

As Richard Tang, CEO of Binance, is a former Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) official, and emphasized "compliance" when he was appointed as Binance's representative, industry insiders speculate that he has decided to directly communicate with Korean financial authorities.

Before being appointed as Binance's representative, he visited Korea as the head of regional markets outside the United States and met with Gopax and Jeonbuk Bank officials.

Meanwhile, Binance recently hired one additional official who is a former Financial Services Commission official. This official is also expected to focus on Gopax's ownership structure improvement issues.