Quite a few international bitcoin exchanges are dealing with big changes right now. Over in China, margin trading and lending have been removed several weeks ago. It now appears Korbit, Korea’s largest bitcoin exchange, is halting BTC/KRW lending as well. An intriguing change, as it will bring more stability to the bitcoin ecosystem as a whole.
Korbit Ends BTC/KRW Lending In Its Current Form
Every exchange platform offering a lending service linked to bitcoin inadvertently promotes cryptocurrency volatility. Lending is on the same level as margin trading, as it allows speculators to take out loans. Then again, it appears quite a few people are not even aware Korbit offers this lending option in the first place, thus this decision will make a minor impact.
Korbit made this change as they want to provide a better experience to all of their users. Even though cryptocurrency is subject to volatility already, Korbit wants to make sure platform users are not overexposed to price fluctuations. Halting the BTC/KRW lending services come March 30 seems to be the best course of action to achieve this goal. Korbit seems to follow the same route as most Chinese exchanges in this regard, which is quite interesting.
All users who have an outstanding loan in either BTC or KRW are expected to repay the full amount by the time the march 30 deadline expires. Although quite a few people use this service – despite many people being oblivious to it – the company feels it is the right course of action. Moreover, are this does not herald the end of lending services provided by Korbit by any means.
To be more specific, the company is currently halting this particular lending service as a temporary measure. There is a plan on the table to introduce an enhanced lending service at are this year, which is expected to go live during the Summer of 2017. This is quite an intriguing decision, although it remains a bit unclear as to what we can expect from this updated feature moving forward.
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