Astar Network to focus more on Korean market after Upbit listing, founder says

ASTR +20.13% token surged over 25% hours after its listing on Upbit , the largest crypto exchange in Korea, with the native cryptocurrency of the Astar Network changing hands for $0.098 at 11:00 a.m. ET, according to The Block data .

"We have been spending multiple months in Korea, hired people, and actively talking with Korean projects," Astar Network Founder Sota Watanabe told The Block about the web3 firm's advance into the Korean market. 

He added that Astar Network's ambition is to make multiple real life use cases for the network within Korea , similar to the ecosystem that they have developed in Japan. "We will focus more on the Korean market since Japan and Korea have a lot of things we can learn from each other," he added.

Astar Network's native token, ASTR, has rallied in the past 24 hours.

Increased interest in web3 in Japan

The Astar Network CEO said the firm's web3 efforts are picking up interest from the Japanese prime minister's office. "This shows that Japan is heavily supporting web3 and startups," Watanabe added.

He explained how Japan has made a key pivot into crypto in the past year, describing how the nation's tax laws are becoming more favorable for web3 firms, and how Sony announced a partnership with the Astar Network in June.

Astar Network is a smart contract platform, supporting both EVM and WebAssembly (Wasm) environments. It is parachain of Polkadot, with a focus on corporate adoption and consumer interest in web3 technologies.