Bitcoin Forum

South Korea’s Financial Services Commission has announced that all initial coin offerings will be banned in the country. and said
"All kinds of initial coin offerings (ICO) will be banned as trading of virtual currencies needs to be tightly controlled and monitored."

Source: https://news.bitcoin.com/south-korea-bans-initial-coin-offerings/

What do you think? Is this ban only temporary and after implementing regulation it they will change their decision or they will do what China did?

I think they implement something to regulate all this stuff. Financial regulation is a little bit scary about ICO.

"Tightly controlled and monitored" basically describes the situation. They will %100 regulate ico markets and everyone will probably be forced (in law) to say what they are gonna do, what is their intention. It is good.

It's probably going to be permanent.

I guess they followed in China's steps and basically did the same thing that China did. They're likely not going to change their decision, at least any time soon.

I mean they could be banning it now until they can figure a way of regulating it. So i could be wrong about this, potentially.

You have the answer in your post itself. The statement itself says that trading of virtual currencies needs to be tightly controlled and monitored which means the they want to monitor the trading and that is the reason why they have banned the ICOs.
They will surely remove the ban once they regulate the ICOs and then there will be no more scammers trying to steal our money.

Enough for this kind of news and this Korea event cannot do huge trouble here since ICO coins will surely do another counter measure to make there sale successful and I think Korea had only few Market unlike  Japan,Russia,Indonesia and many more country ahead.

This is what I read on reddit other day. Seems like year end will be having a bloody new year party :D

Official Statement from Korean FSC: http://www.fsc.go.kr/info/ntc_news_view.jsp?menu=7210100&bbsid=BBS0030&no=32027

Overview of the Conference
□ Today '17 .9.1. (Fri) 10:30 Hosted by Vice Chairman Yong-Bum Kim of the Financial Services Commission Time: '17 .9.1. (Fri) 10:30

Place: Financial Committee, 16th Floor

attendance

Deputy Chairman (Financial Supervisor) (Deputy Director), Financial Services Director, FIU Planning and Administration, Director

(Affiliated institution) National Office, Department, FTC, Ministry of Justice, Korea Communications Commission, National Tax Service, National Police Agency, Bank of Korea, Financial Supervisory Service,

Main contents
□ Kim Yong-bum, vice chairman, remarked that the market is overheating, as the virtual currency transaction volume has greatly increased and the transaction price has risen sharply.

ㅇ It is mentioned that there is a concern about consumer harm due to illegal transactions that exploited virtual currencies and the occurrence of fraudulent crimes such as similar multi-

ㅇ At this point, virtual currencies are difficult to see as currency or financial products, but they emphasize the need for careful responses because they may negatively affect the order of financial transactions if virtual currency transactions are made indiscriminately.

ㅇ In addition, we called for close cooperation and cooperation so that the countermeasures prepared through the discussions between related organizations can be implemented without any trouble.

Securing Transparency in Transactions and Providing Equipment for Consumer Protection

□ As a viable measure within the framework of the current law, we will strengthen the identification of the user of the virtual currency handler and strengthen the bank's suspicious transaction reporting when dealing with the virtual currency handler

In addition, if a small amount of overseas remittance funds use virtual currency as an intermediary for overseas remittance, it will strengthen monitoring through cooperating with related agencies and secure transparency of transactions

ㅇ At present, as a result of suspicion transaction reporting (Specified Financial Information Act) and real name verification (financial real name law)

Regarding the domestic transactions of virtual currencies, the government plans to introduce regulations in light of trends in strengthening anti-money laundering regulations of major countries (amendment of the Special Law)
ㅇ Recommendation to reflect consumer protection matters such as separate deposit of customer assets entrusted to virtual currency handling business to autonomous regulations to be provided by handling companies

□ Further plans to improve the legal system to establish sound business order

ㅇ We will improve the effectiveness of punishment by clarifying the grounds of the similar reception act regulation law and strengthening the level of punishment for the similar reception behavior purporting to be a virtual currency investment.

ㅇ On the other hand, since government financial institutions can not guarantee the value of virtual currencies,

Expanding the scope of the Act on Regulation of Similar Receiving Act, it will also establish a discipline system for 'virtual currency transaction'
(Tentatively called 'Regulation Act on Similar Reception Acts')

ㅇ In addition, for the act of financing (ICO) using virtual currency in the form of issuance of securities such as equity securities, debt securities, etc.,

Joint measures to prevent consumer harm

□ In order to prevent consumer harm, the related organizations are jointly and resolutely responding to criminal tort

ㅇ Similar multi-level fraud crimes will be enforced and enforcement will be enforced during the period of intensive enforcement (~ end of 17) by constituting a "joint enforcement officer".

ㅇ We will thoroughly investigate customer information leakage accidents due to hacking, etc., and strictly observe the violation of the law

ㅇ In addition, we will establish a joint inspection system by examining the status of virtual currency handling companies and sharing them with the Fair Trade Commission, the National Tax Service, and the National Tax Service.

Review regulatory oversight issues

□ For matters that are not established international consensus, such as the nature of the virtual currency handling business, authorization issues, taxation issues, etc.

ㅇ We will closely examine the regulatory trends of governments, international organizations, etc., and discuss countermeasures through sufficient discussion.

Future schedule
□ In the future, joint TFs will be held quarterly ('17. ', '17 .12'),

ㅇ The committee will hold a monthly inspection meeting of related institutions (presided by the Financial Supervisory Commission)

South Korea government are strict when implementing a law and whatever law was created it is for the benefits and good of their people. Banning ICO and regulating virtual currency in their country is good (in my opinion) this will eliminate those scam ICO. ICO should state what they really wants, what they vision on doing such project how can the project affect the community. In this case Companies releasing an ICO are required to show how sincere the project and how legit it is. This will take more longer than china but it will not get permanent as the government are also looking to is potential for the long term use.

It is just a news now that can dump the price because if you see how china did just like as expected to spread a big dump and regulating or legalizing any of these ICO in that the bitvoins has both positives and negative effect like a dump or a pump which is also good for us if you know how to manage on this kind of news and situations in the market or just hold and believe.

All of country Think There country will be Loss control of its own. Because Decentralized system is free. China do that same thing Some day ago.

But they Can't stop bitcoin.

I don't believe this news. Someone really wants to provoke a dump. If they got it I would be very happy. I will have the opportunity to buy some more coins at a low price. I don't have a large amount of free money so I do not trade on exchange but if possible always buy coins during a dump. Then sell them on the rise.

I think in the past few countries had the banking system functioning in a much better way, but in the mean due to the bitcoin technology impact a large disturbance was observed over the banking industry in terms of loss. This might be the reason for the banning of ICO.

now I do not have to worry about the country that did the creator against crypto, I think it will only harm its own country. we know that yesterday china has banned crypto, but what ?? crypto only weakened for a while and now see the movement of bitcoin is already $ 4000 more.
it's up to what people do, but from now on I will continue to add my assets into crypto especially bitcoin and later if it gets to the moon, I will say "goodbye"

Just because you don#t believe doesnt mean the news is wrong. I have already posted link of official KFSC statement. Crypto has caught lot of attention past 6-8 months, more repercussion coming!

There may be concerns from the korea because the bitcoin price in 1 hour alone may change
but they do not prohibit it completely, And if allowed there will be regulations or rules of the government

I stopped caring about this kind of news I’m not a trader anyway I’m not watching the price every single minute of the day, as long as they do not ban bitcoin I do not care, and even if it came to that point the only thing that I will think at that time is that the price of bitcoin is going down and that is the perfect time to get bitcoin at a discount.

This is being talked about a lot already. And is somehow intriguing if you ask me, because this may be just an attemp to get dumping dominos.

But if this is true, i do not think that tgere really is much that we should be worrying about. I love buying low priced coins so..

Now, regarding the duration of the ban, I don’t think its gonna end anytime soon. Because if you read what you posted, they clearly stated that they want to have clear vision of all the transactions. Meaning, they want regulation. So unless they figure out how, I think the ban will stay as it is.

These countries that ban ICOs are very short sighted. They will not get to reap as much economic benefits from Fintech as the countries that embrace it. The 20th century financial model is using its usefulness and a new model is rising. The countries with vision will attract the best and brightest talent, using the latest technologies. This is a virtuous cycle, where each win leads to another, great win.

And what is the reason? Protecting their people from fraud? South Korea just had to fire its President for being in a Satanic cult - true story. They are protecting rich banksters from the people also getting wealthy.

The news was true in  my opinion because some people alreayd posted the relibale source about that news. as you can see a lot of the potential in crypto and many countries are not like it.

Nothing to worry about that, it's natural on financial world. News only about speculation ( 1 August ), it's only temporary trends. South Korea has different policy about ICO and that's their rights, we can't do anything about it. As investor/ trader you should take challenge when news like this comes up, there's opportunity to make profit with this situation. Face it and thank you.

Nothing big happened, just a little dump, they still support bitcoin trading, it is good enough.

Good.. they are all scammy by design.
This stuff should have never been morphed into a pointless unregulated scammy crypto-kickstarter.
They should not HAVE to ban them though.
You investards out there should have enough integrity and class to stay away from them all on your own.

"A little dump" he says ?
Yeah well that is someone's food taken off their table somewhere noob.
People losing money should not be trivialized.

I think all of these bans are temporary. They don't want to stop them altogether, they just want them to be regulated. The quickest way to do that is a temp ban whilst a legal framework is put in place.

If korea goverment bans all coin offerings, it's be dangerous we must be prepared that price of coins will fall and investors will be less.

really? after china banned ico, now north korea also will ban ico in his country. very sad if there will be many countries that follow the footsteps of china, hopefully this is only temporary

i wonder if this source is even really true? I read that the China ban was suspect and they werent going to ban. Such speculation.

i suppose this is going to bring more need for privacy coins such as deeponion, monero, dash ect.

Hopefully people will still be able to trade in these countries that are going through these bans. Pitty that government wants to regulate anything that threatens it.

But they could invest in some funds, like Finshi. And it will look like Finshi invest in project, not South Korean peoples. Everything fine and god a profit from ICO

I read the article posted by the OP. It's too short to make much sense of it, as for me. I mean, it is said they will be banned followed by Chinese bans, but I guess Chinese ban is temporary and will simply lead to regulations, whereas we don't know for how long will icos be banned in Korea. Moreover, as I read in comments, only South Korean icos are under the ban, others are totally fine and legit (or at least not banned). I guess we'll see more info about it in the future and it will help to throw light on what we have here.

Just to be clear are ICO's banned from originating in S. Korea or are they banning South Korean investors from buying into ICO's?  ??? ??? It does not seem that any SK companies have retreated on their ICO's and Altcoin trading? This is all very reactionary and knee jerk response.

Well! ICO are meant to tread on unchatted territory! It is like sticking your neck for highly experimental project which are likely to fail but still have a chance of success. If they success they can make their investor millionaires overnight. If South Korea, that's is their loss. They would have killed innovation and development that might not get funded by the bank!

Interesting.. and you are the only non-noob talking.. *barley (hero account)
It blows me away how everyone left who used to be AGAINST ICO's
and now i see nothing but noob accounts lecturing everyone with moronic rabble.

Guys clue in much ?
Why is so many countries banning them ?
Thought to wonder why ?
Lemme guess it's the man trying to keep you down or some other retarded conspiracy.
Nope.
It because of the same reason all of crypto hated them years ago.. ideology.
They are not "crypto currencies"
They are pyramid schemes.

And of course every noob here is piling in defending them with dumb commentary.
They have one agenda.. buy them and dump for Bitcoin profits.
Bitcoin.. a digital currency.
Something no ICO can ever be.. ever !

You guys are ignoring the writing on the wall i lectured you about for 5 fucking god damn years.
Why do i tell you PAYPAL banned crypto a million times ?
Why did Kickstarter ban them ?
Need a million fucking examples ?
It's not about <insert country name> and some dumb fuck conspiracy.
It's about a wave of regulations i TOLD YOU all was coming *delayed.
..for a reason

Can you smart little children figure out what that might be ?

If you don't see the wave then as the band Fear Factory said "Suffer bastard"  :D
Drown investards..

EDIT:
Look at the guy who commented before me..
He is talking like we don't have 8 years of history to review.
We already went through all of this.
And the idiot noobs are ignoring history when they are reminded.. by myself or a few others.
While they ramble on like they know things.

History is in fact repeating but the idiot noobs don't see it.

"Initial Coin Offerings" shouldn't exist period .

was it expected by the markets that south korea bans ICOs?

It is very strange that such a big nation announces something like that and nothing happens to the price of cryptos...

why is that the case?

Were there any rumors regarding announcements like that or what is the reason for the missing massive price reactions?

South korea is fully depends on China. Internationally no country is supporting South Korea due to its atomic and missile program. China has ban Bitcoin so south Korea also moving on the footprint of China in this matter.

The Swiss and the US (SEC) are also looking into this. It's going to happen everywhere. This is good for the cryptocurrency market. This will help to cut down on a lot of the scams out there, so hopefully we are left with quality coins to invest in. This will also legitimize the market. Fewer coins and legitimacy means more money will come into the coins left standing.

Just be careful with any ICO.

How could that be? Honestly,as I've worked before in a company wherein I met and got to know many Koreans and I learned about their country. It's not that they depend on China it's because they always feel awkward when they meet people from China which only means that they are a bit of hating Chinese. In connection with the products that are China made in Korea,those would be banned in their country but banning all initial coin offerings is another thing. Koreans are too smart for investment and I think they are just very particular in what kind of coin you are offering. They aren't that rude to ban right there and then.

Maybe South Korea is reviewing ICOs to regulate and study the possible rules to be done incase they decided to unban ICO. Anyways, whatever the result maybe about this issue on South Korea banning ICOs, bitcoin will continue and goes on. It will remain what it is.

Initial coin offerings have to be regulated not banned. In the long term I hope to see them change their stance. I  understand though, but their approach is wrong. It will even out eventually.

I think there is nothing wrong with what Korea  did, this is only way to regulate the coins that are entering their country. Once well controlled regualtion occured in a country, scams that was/is to be made will be lessen. I think there will be more countries who will be doing this kindnof control and regulation. There will come a time when all ICO offered become legit and will really cause ua benefited. Thus, i conclude that ICO will not be permanently banned in korea but there will be just cleansing to happen which will make  ICO become authentic .

It is not going to be dangerous in anyway. It is just a pity it has gotten to this stage that there will be a tight monitoring/controlling and investors who fell into the hands of scammers without proper diligence on the ICOs they were investing in, are the ones at fault.

Anyway, it is obvious the ICO thing is getting out of hand and I would not blame any government for trying to control them. However, I do not see how this would cause a huge fall for the market.

People, wake up!
Governments have never cared of us and will never do. None of them is interested in doing that. Get educated, open your eyes! Everything they do is steal our money and taking our freedoms away. I'm sure they are the ones who stand behind fake ICO's (not all ICO's, of course) and then offer a "solution" to regulate them. The same story as terrorism.
Regulation means paying taxes which means receiving free money from people who work day and night in order to earn that money and feed the family. I'm sure, the ICO's in the S.Korea will be unbanned for the sake of regulation.

I think implications of few rules and regulation is important.
It will be good for both government and community.
Nowadays i can see these type of banning news or news like these are not affecting anymore.
Because people are getting used to in this type of situation.

as different customs with the basics on ideals to gives as initials with the chance on occupying use of goods and the service, the decision might be of one as referring the point of objectives as the different answers with the customs of issues to work with the distinct with the one as best to match of aggregate preference on appealing business.

I just wonder when they will ban etherum becouse 60m of eth was sold for 30 000 BTC:D so 77% is from coin creation by certain people.
IF they ban ICOs they should ban ETH why not ? But I see it trading on exchanges now ? Why ETH ICOs is better than other ICO ?
Just beacouse ETH ICO was older doesn't mean it is safer : ) .
They should not BAN ICO or ban all ICOs.

I'm glad some of these places are banning ICO's. Some are complete trash and pure scams. It's bringing money in to the space but this ICO craze might blow up.

WOW holy shit !

Do you seriously see nothing wrong with ICO's ?
Even if you were a noob and knew nothing about the historic ideology and history of crypto you would have to see some major problems with them. (especially when they are viewed with the full context of crypto)

Yet you *ALL* line up to act stupid and play dumb.
Or are you ?

I don't get it.. WTF is going on here ?
Are you all mentally ill and suffer from not being able to tell right from wrong or what ?

That is why i can't stand all of you.
You are a nation of dirty scum bags.
All of crypto is a sack of greedy pieces of shit that should go to jail.
I vote any douche who made or owned an ICO coin should be brought up on charges of fraud.

We have to accept that most of ICOs today turn to be scam.They are just launched only to loot the money from public.The scam list has started to increase very high nowadays.

So,we could easily understand that each government has an important role in protecting its citizens from such scams.China has kicked the first goal in this matter by banning ICOs.Now,korea has decided just to follow china.

I think that the ban on ICOs would not be temporary and governments would not show interest in regulating ICOs as there seems to be no benefit for them in allowing ICOs.

All these ICO's scam user one way or other. A little bit of restriction will be healthy for community and world in general. Also peace of mind for crypt's future prospect to be used as mainstream source of transaction.

I think South korea banned ICO is temporary as china did. After china's government perfect regulatory system, they will open the market again.  the drain of money is not  a  good thing for those contries  that banned ICO.
 

I think that after implementing a number of measures aimed at reducing the risk in carrying out ICO and protecting investors' rights against possible fraud, the South Korean government will resume this activity on the initial issue of coins, but will make this process more regulated. Ultimately, the government does not make sense to ban the holding of an ICO for good. Moreover, such activities make a certain contribution to the development of the country's economy, and the issue of digital coins ultimately creates additional conveniences for the life of citizens.

Good job for the government of South Korea because they are protecting it's countrymen from possible scams. I know that move was just temporary for now because sooner or later they have to decide whether just to implement regulation on ICO's or maybe they will implement a total ban on ICO's forever. Just like China, or any other countries that has strong control in cryptocurrencies I know one day that they will realize the potential of these investments through regulating them. We can be safe if that happens and there would be no scammy ones who will try to cheat on investors worldwide. We need it for the safety of our investments because it is hard to earn money these days so for me it is okay to regulate ICO's and give them chance to prove they are legit.

They did not ban all ICO projects, but ban new projects using ICO means from raising fund from the market, I do agree with this because most of these ICOs look scamming in my opinion and especially that part of the world where scam is very high

Now more and more countries are banned bitcoin and altcoin including ICO, I am saddened by this fact, should many countries that support ICO project because the presence of ICO can improve the economic prosperity nationally.

The ban is most likely temporary. Korea has a strong following. They probably need time to put in regulations.

There we go, someone who reads the news item past the headline. They are no longer allowing ICOs to be conducted as a means of fundraising - fair enough. But they're not going to criminalize people just for having held ICOs or even buying tokens and coins during ICOs. But don't worry, the government is doing this for the good of people. Now all those people who ran ICOs will have to watch their work and deliver what they promised or they will be hounded.

I can not understand why they have to do this, ico just need to strengthen the regulation, not prohibit

 because the trading of Bitcoin and other cryptocoins needs to be tightly controlled. Violators of the new ban will receive “stern penalties,” but no details of what those penalties will be have been provided. As ICOs increase in quantity and scale, they’ve attracted the attention of government regulators in various countries. Korean regulators may exact more measures to control cryptocurrencies after continuing to monitor the situation.

another ban on another scam ICOs.
Its really tricky to regulate ICO, but I doubt people still stop putting money to it.

Looks like ICO from Korea would be no longer allowed for sure.

I do not see what good can come from this, if you think this is about protecting people that is a mistake this is about control, besides people need to do their due diligence and not to rely on someone else to do that job for them, if you do not care enough about your money then who is going to do it, your neighbor? Your friends? Make your due diligence and your chances of being scammed are going to be very low.

It is necessary for the economy of a country when it wants to grow and they want to control and control everything according to their will. They still allow Bitcoin to work, but Bitcoin must be tightly controlled by the central bank and government, which is a sign of a developed nation.

While ETH had an ico, ETH is no longer an ico, it is now an established project that has become successful so it is very unlikely ETH is going to be banned, however I agree with the sentiment somewhat, coins should not have icos and people that believe in the project must earn their tokens through mining the same way that bitcoin did it, but it seems that model is not going to come back.

I think they should find a way to regulate ICOs instead of outrightly banning it.

Controlling bitcoin tightly is not  sign of a developed country is the sign of a country that does not tolerate to not have something under their control but no matter what they do they are not going to be able to fully control bitcoin and that is thanks to the genius satoshi was and the measures he took in order to make bitcoin an incredible difficult project to shutdown.

Damn, another country?  What is it at so far?  U.S., S.K, China?  I think the trend of ICO's accepting donations as a way of funding the projects is going to increase drastically. 

It's because they cannot control it. If they could have regulations they would be more likely to accept it. I don't think it's a matter of lack of knowledge or not having the technical knowhow. After awhile when bitcoin is more accepted they will come along.

It seems the age of icos is going to have to change to adapt to this new circumstances, I do not think it is the end, it is likely that icos are going to require to identify yourself if you want to invest in the ico, I have seen some icos doing that already, but even if those measures are in place there are many people that are not going to abide for them and are going to cheat and invest in the icos anyway.