South Korea’s Shinhan Bank starts ‘metaverse’ services, according to local media

Shinhan Bank, one of South Korea’s top four lenders by net profit, has opened a “metaverse” site to provide what it called financial and non-financial services, claiming to be the first bank in the country to provide such a platform, according to local media reports on Wednesday.

See related article: S.Korea’s Shinhan Securities lays groundwork toward hoped-for crypto expansion

Fast facts

• The so-called “Shinamon” metaverse platform will comprise zones for finance, healthcare, art, and sports, according to the reports.
• The bank said it ran a five-day test trial of the Shinamon’s service in June this year and attracted 85,000 visitors.
• Shinhan Bank’s announcement follows a number of experiments by the lender with blockchain and cryptocurrency related services.
• In December last year, it ran a test of a real-time international remittance via stablecoin with Standard Bank of South Africa and using the blockchain network Hedera Hashgraph.
• Shinhan Bank is also an early investor in Korea Digital Asset Custody, an industry consortium that provides crypto custody services.
• The bank is currently partnered with Korbit, one of South Korea’s big five crypto exchanges, in providing users with real-name deposit and withdrawal accounts mandated by local regulations for transparent transactions.

See related article: U.S., S. Korea applied for over 75% of world’s metaverse patents: report

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