Seven large traditional brokerages in South Korea have started laying the groundwork for their own crypto exchanges in the first half of next year, local newspaper NewsPim reported on Monday.

The firms have applied for preliminary approval and establishment of corporations to run virtual asset exchanges, the report said.

Mirae Asset Securities and Samsung Securities are among the seven firms, the newspaper reported, citing anonymous industry sources. Mirae has established a subsidiary under its affiliate Mirae Consulting, which is hiring technical staff for various cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens, while Samsung is studying how to enter the blockchain-based security tokens market, NewsPim reported. At the end of last year, Samsung could not find staff to build a crypto trading platform, the newspaper wrote.

South Korean President Yoon Suk-Yeol took office in May and had promised to be more friendly to the crypto industry and nurture new projects. However, due to the collapse of stablecoin terraUSD (UST), authorities have become more stringent, raiding exchanges and flagging others for not registering properly.

The fact that big traditional firms are looking to enter crypto is in line with Yoon's easing of regulations, NewsPim wrote.

Under former President Moon Jae-In, South Korean authorities had been trying to regulate the burgeoning crypto sector, requiring exchanges to register in a painstaking process.

Read more: 'Don't Say Terra' and Other Reflections From Korea's Crypto Extravaganza