If you’ve been thinking about starting your own crypto exchange, here’s some serious fuel for your fire: South Korea’s top exchanges just paid out $87 million in fiat interest to users in one year.

This wasn’t just a nice bonus for users—it was a strategic business move, triggered by the Virtual Asset User Protection Act that required exchanges to offer “reasonable” interest on customer fiat deposits.

What happened next was big: platforms like Upbit, Bithumb, and Coinone began competing with interest rates around 2%, driving massive user deposits and platform engagement.

But here’s the real takeaway for future exchange owners: