Binance invests in S Korean crypto exchange GOPAX

Binance, the llobal blockchain ecosystem and cryptocurrency infrastructure provider, has invested in GOPAX, a South Korean cryptocurrency exchange licensed to provide fiat-to-crypto services to customers.

The investment was part of Binance’s Industry Recovery Initiative (IRI), according to the announcement.

Launched at the end of 2022, the IRI is a co-investment opportunity for organizations wishing to contribute to the future of Web3 by supporting industry players negatively impacted by market forces.

Select organizations must show a dedication to innovation and long-term value creation, have a clearly delineated and viable business model, and focus significantly on risk management.

In November 2022, GOPAX halted the withdrawal of principal and interest payments in its decentralized finance (DeFi) service GoFi as a consequence of the upstream challenges experienced by Genesis Global Capital, LLC.

Since then, GOPAX has been working closely with local regulators and industry partners in an effort to raise funds to make affected users whole.

Binance recognizes GOPAX’s commitment to its users and shares its goal of raising user protection standards by fostering a sustainable and responsible environment for cryptocurrency investments and trading in South Korea.

As part of this transaction, Binance will inject capital into GOPAX with the objective of securing in full any potential GoFi users’ withdrawal requests against all staked deposits, including interest.

Binance will also work closely with GOPAX to improve user education and blockchain awareness through Binance Academy, an open access blockchain and crypto learning portal that provides free educational resources to users.

Binance is committed to collaborating with the South Korean regulators and virtual asset stakeholders to explore how Binance can leverage its technology and liquidity to support the local ecosystem.

“Binance has a responsibility to protect our users, as well as our industry. The Industry Recovery Initiative was created to support promising companies that were negatively impacted by the events of last year. We hope that taking this step with GOPAX will further rebuild the Korean crypto and blockchain industry,” said Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, founder and CEO of Binance.