Bitcoin Forum

Bitcoin is now legal in South Korea, one of the countries with the largest crypto community in Asia. The South Korean National Assembly formally passed the "Law on Reporting and Use of Certain Financial Information" into law, and made digital currency trading and legal activities in the country, TheNewsAsia reported today. The legality of this Bitcoin requires all crypto exchanges and bitcoin trading places in the region to "comply with financial reporting requirements."

Previously, the South Korean government reportedly planned to impose a 20% tax on revenues from cryptocurrency transactions. This policy proposal emerged in 2019.

This development is evidence of proactive government involvement in the digital asset industry. Around the beginning of January, even the South Korean 4th Industrial Revolution Commission recommended that the country's financial institutions launch digital currency related services such as Bitcoin derivatives in the country.

According to the commission, as of May 2019 the daily trade of crypto assets reached more than 80 trillion won of around US $ 959.1 trillion. This amount is large enough that it is no longer possible to stop trading in crypto assets in this country.

If you can't fight it, you have to embrace it. Thus the South Korean Government must gradually allow institutional investors to deal with crypto assets and promote the over the counter (OTC) method.

South Korea's 4th Industrial Revolution Commission
South Korea's cryptocurrency regulations have evolved significantly since Democratic National Park Committee member Park Yong Jin came to power and began introducing taxation for crypto for the first time in 2017.

With Bitcoin already having legal status in South Korea, it will most likely affect the price of the crypto assets and increase the rate of cryptocurrency adoption in South Korea and other countries in Asia. Please note that Bitcoin is legal in several Asian countries, including Japan, India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Singapore and Thailand.

First Japan. Then India. Now South Korea.

Slowly and silently Asian countries are discovering the fact that the only way they can compete with USD/EUR is by legalizing Crypto aka BTC. They wont ever be able to take their individual national currencies to the level of acceptance USD/EUR has. Hence, they are banking on decentralized medium of exchange.

Question is When China?

Congratulations to South Koreans.


China will never accept BTC but will create their own as China had been developing their own crypto world. They may not allow BTC in the mainland but probably in some places like Hongkong where the business areas are. This kind of structure had been done by them in their current system. The Chinese are also creating their own digital currency so crypto must be accepted but not in the mainland.

China is little difficult to accept Bitcoin, Already many peoples are struggle in China because of coronavirus so it take sometime and all the countries are accepting soon. Yeah I am also see yesterday India accepting the crypto currency and today South Korea, what will next so most of the popular countries are accepting Bitcoin it make big noise in Crypto market. I hope as soon as possible it will be globalised.

China has already accepted bitcoin and it has been legal for many years, i believe from back in 2011 up until now. there is still some areas that need regulations to put an end to the very long FUD about China and bitcoin laws that have been circulating the internet nearly as long as bitcoin existed.

I wonder why this information wasn't picked up by popular media portals that publish articles about cryptocurrencies... From what I've read (https://btcmanager.com/breaking-cryptocurrency-legal-south-korea/?q=/breaking-cryptocurrency-legal-south-korea/&) it also seems that it will take a lot of time before this actually starts working:
It also seems unclear what impact it's going to have because the specific requirements related to making it fully legal are unknown. For instance, will the profits be taxed? If yes, how heavily? Is it the end of anonymous usage of Bitcoin in the country, will KYC be enforced all the time to combat money laundering? And depending on what it really means, this decision can lead to different consequences for the market and Bitcoin adoption.

The others are probably pertaining to its usage as a cryptocurrency. Bitcoin is relatively understood as a "virtual property" and only that in China, probably just like how items from games that could be sold in virtual markets are. Not to mention the fact that China avidly reduces the influence of cryptocurrency in their country by banning ICO's, exchanges, and even the mining of BTC itself.
Ngl, just fixing the regulations isn't going to end it. The country itself does not recognize BTC because of the fact that there's nothing back them. No official institutions, no proof of it actually "existing", hence its inability to function as a currency. They need to change that mindset of theirs if China wants to adopt BTC, though I doubt it could happen with them developing their very own.

Few articles I found about how China stands on BTC:
https://www.investopedia.com/news/bitcoin-banned-china/ (https://www.investopedia.com/news/bitcoin-banned-china/)
https://www.coindesk.com/cryptocurrency-in-china-over-the-counter-under-the-table (https://www.coindesk.com/cryptocurrency-in-china-over-the-counter-under-the-table)

Knowing that they were a key part into the 2017 bullrun, and there are keen traders and enthusiasts from the said country, it is not far from reality that their government would make bitcoin legal. South Korea is full of level-headed officials that actually knows what they're doing, so it is bound to happen anyway IMO and it was just a matter of time.


They'll just play the teasing game and would not pull the trigger unless most of the countries are into it.

About time Korea got in. It was strange they had such ambiguity with so many investors there interested, and the various exchanges etc.

China will take longer, because politicians there are even stronger, but its only a matter of time. Let them be surrounded and notice how wealth goes to others instead, for them to finally get it.

Blocking bitcoin means blocking wealth, pure and simple. The politicians that don't get it by words, will get it by numbers.

Lets just say Korea now has acquired an additional competitive advantage over China.

Of course it depends on their levels of "regulation". The more the State meddles in, the less effective. Such as that 20% tax... not good.

I think you're underestimating the very nature of the Chinese government. They aren't known for allowing their citizens to control anything that they would rightfully own in other countries, and I don't think they would be prepared to give a decentralised cryptocurrency the green light any time soon. Maybe, in the future if there are big changes internally for China, but currently their country looks to impose control of its population in every sector possible.

Now South Korea set the bar for the legality of Bitcoin. Even before, the country was known as a good player in the crypto world in Asia and now, the seem to be difficult to reach peak was achieved. We don't need to make Bitcoin or any form of cryptocurrency as the only form of currency to be known by a country. Rather, like what SK did, it was another form of asset that is therefore subjected to taxation. With this big news in the crypto world, I think more Asian countries would have the guts to actually take on the impossible. There can always be trial and I know, each government has their own big minds for the investigation of the life of Bitcoin in their country. On the other hand, the Sleeping Giant of Asia, China, as far as we speculate is creating its own form of currency which is possible because they have the guts and power. I think in a span of time, countries would be participating in the competition as well but this news, at present, is a big news for crypto investors and users.

Nice! It was about time for South Korea to make Bitcoin legal. No wonder why they have the best internet in the world and all the "alien" tech so making Bitcoin legal was kinda obvious but it took longer than I expected. I hope that this will encourage more people to have a look at Bitcoin and implement the same example as South Korea but the world nowadays is more concerned about Coronavirus... .

I wonder how much longer will China take before it looks upon Bitcoin as a legal currency ? It may take longer than expected.

Was it illegal before? I don't understand, I thought south Korea are one of the crypto friendly country with high rate of crypto supporters,
The good news keep pouring in now hey! Yesterday it was about the India government uplifting the ban on crypto, now south Korea with another positive news,
Let's hope all this positive news will support btc in a positive light.

The ICO's has been stopped by them during the entire bull run but I don't think they have ever banned bitcoin. Huge mining facilities are coming from that country so it has been a good country for bitcoin.

I'm also thinking the same question because we've been hearing good and bad news from them about cryptocurrency. The bad news is about the taxation and the exchange hacks.

This event takes place a day after the Indian crypto ban, imposed by the RBI in 2018, was lifted. This also provoked a bullish reaction from the community. Many believe the lifting of the Indian crypto ban, along with the halving that is going to take place in just over two months, may trigger a significant BTC price surge in the long term.

This are not only the good news that keep coming about crypto, there are other related news as well that I see on some telegram channel I follow about crypto, I think there will be lots of positivenes in this space this year than the previous,
Maybe soon there will be new investors coming in with all this exciting news lately,
The road to adoption is coming closer by the day, slow and steady win the race

They will, for the same reason they opened their economy rather than continue the dogmatic socialist centralized nonsense. Sure it won't be quick, last time it wasn't until Mao Zedong died, that Deng Xiaoping started the economic reforms. Perhaps some remaining old dinosaurs need to go, or perhaps a revolution would occur like you suggest.

Thing is the economic disadvantage of refusing bitcoin is going to matter, and just like some other countries took and are still taking their time, they will end admitting defeat because the reality (numbers) talk better than the politicians.

And, its not like they don't have internal pressure. Things under an oppressive regime simply take much longer, but eventually they will find it useless to resist, like they found useless to oppose capitalism and ended embracing it, so will they embrace Bitcoin, even if they oppose it at first.

Note that bitcoin is controlled by no one, no govs, no institutions, no banks, no millionaires. The code governs it, and you know how hard it is to change its rules without everyone approving. So its not like the citizens would "control it" either. Very likely they will adopt a ton of useless regulation that seem to appease the average politician. If anything, its about the government losing control over the money, and that is good because that way things remain transparent and clear. If you over-budget, fix it without ruining everyone's money, that practice has to end.

Gradually, we are now seeing countries adopting Bitcoin legally, last week an Australian court accepted digital currency as collateral. Slowly and steady, the adoption is coming in gradually.

This is good news for cryptocurrency. I recently read that India lift the ban for Bitcoin/crypto and now it's South Korea. It's a good thing that they are beginning to accept crypto and at least it won't be tagged as an illegal thing nowadays. Looking forward to other countries that will follow.

Who knows? Maybe they will accept Bitcoin too when time comes? because as long as Bitcoin popularity hits the mark, then maybe their government will have a change in their mind to accept Bitcoin again? it's not like Bitcoin will just perish in the future. Bitcoin is here to stay and more countries are sure to accept Bitcoin, we just need time. Also, it's not like China's citizen hasn't accepted Bitcoin anyway, they do and they are taking advantage of it.

Is Bitcoin not yet legal in South Korea before this amendment was passed?

I guess this new amendment is more focused on exchanges and other business entities which are involved in the trade of cryptocurrencies rather than on the legalization of Bitcoin itself, more particularly on the financial reporting of these entities and related transactions.

If I am not mistaken, Bitcoin is already accepted in South Korea. As a matter of fact, there are already a handful of cryptocurrency exchanges legally operating in South Korea for quite a while. We have Bithumb, Coinone, Upbit, and a few more.  

China has been legalized crypto since they release some news on potential of blockchain. So doesnt necessarily needed to mentioned. Most recent news prove that adoption is immense when it comes to legalization but what bothers me is the fact that even with these announcement some country still open for a huge debate regarding risk of the crypto. Like many others not all can be easily convinced with legalization as potential risk of crypto is still possible as illegal activity continously happening even with this. Punishment for violators should also be encourage on amendments of different rules these countries laid.

80 Trillion WON would be 6.72 Billion USD on today's rate of 1 USD = 1190 WON, Not 959 trillion. How could that even be a typo..lol..

Supreme Court of India quashed the directive from central bank which had banned banks from providing fiat liquidity to business entities dealing in crypto. This led to flow being limited to p2p buying and selling. This says nothing about the legality though or what may happen in the future. The legislation from South Korea is a central assembly legislation while the Indian lawmakers were until recently sitting on a bill to ban cryptocurrencies.
Its our hope that after this supreme court decision, these idiots will step back and rethink legislation in line with Korea. Thanks to Korea for leading the way.

This only means that we are nearing in the future where we will be using digital assets as means of payment. With the South Korea action, it will surely boost the investors in crypto and the demand will surely increase especially if more people from South Korea will engage in crypto investment.

Upon the legalization, it will be good also if they will start to educate their people on how to use crypto currencies so the people will know how to invest their money and they will fall to the hands of the scammers. More and more countries are now embracing the crypto currencies, I am hoping other countries who are not yet fully open to crypto will follow soon.

This is certainly very encouraging news and ensures that bitcoin is indeed recognized and can bring change to legalizing countries. for a country with quite good technological progress after China, of course South Korea will have a value that can make bitcoin spread to other countries.
of course we are waiting for other news about bitcoin because the influence of South Korea is quite seen in the world.

Don't look for impossible mate because china would rather choose other currencies or create their own than to adopt bitcoin.

they are now using Blockchain technology as what the news tells last year but bitcoin?i'm afraid they dont have any plans or not in the several years to come.

but let us enjoy the positive news because just days ago India lift the banning of crypto and not here we are Korea joined the news surely there will be next .

Nope,they can't compete with USD/EUR and they aren't even trying.Asian countries just "discovered the fact" that it's better to legalize crypto trading and get some tax revenue out of it,rather than keeping it illegal and getting 0 tax revenue from that expanding industry.It's all about the interests of their government,they still don't care about Bitcoin and mass Bitcoin adoption.Nevertheless,this is good news.
China will accept Bitcoin,only if their own "governmentcoin" crypto project fails.Let's see what will happen.

When I read the title I thought of something out of the ordinary, but it became normal after reading the entire explanation of the OP.
What happened in South Korea already happened earlier in my country Indonesia, legalization is only limited to transactions on the exchange not on acceptance as a legal payment instrument.
It would be great if the countries that already accepted Bitcoin also started to make regulations about the acceptance of Bitcoin as one of the means of payment so that many shops or retailers will accept it.

First was India and now South Korea let's hope more other country would continue to legalize Bitcoin,
More country would follow their step for Bitcoin adaptation it would help a lot for the market growth.
For me it would help for the long term price growth it would be more stable than before.

add french
https://7bitcoins.com/french-court-recognizes-bitcoin-as-currency/
and Indian Bank gets bailed out
https://www.bloombergquint.com/business/india-said-to-approve-plan-for-state-bank-to-buy-yes-bank-stake

The OP should include his reference also as to where he got the information. But checking crypto websites, I found these links and you can read more to confirm the news. I really thought that bitcoin is fully legal in south korea as I have encountered several Korean crypto exchanges in the past, they even have the BTC/SK Won pair. Now that they are in full blast, the KYC/AML will be done by crypto exchanges also.

https://btcmanager.com/breaking-cryptocurrency-legal-south-korea/

https://bitcoinist.com/crypto-trading-legalized-in-south-korea/

https://www.newsbtc.com/2020/03/05/its-bullish-for-bitcoin-but-crypto-was-already-legal-in-south-korea/

https://i.postimg.cc/fWCj1dw3/Screen-Shot-2020-03-06-at-2-53-48-PM.png

I always thought Bitcoin was already legal there. If I understand correctly this just means now that crypto exchanges can be legal as long as they qualify by reporting or getting their special permits, as in, they will now be monitored.

As Tweet above said, crypto already cool with South Korea. Let's not make this a super big thing.

It is impossible for China to do that, even if we become optimistic when it comes to this, the probability that they will legalized bitcoin in their country is very low. Unlike in India, the latest news said that they already accepted cryptocurrency in their country with the help of the people who uses and support cryptocurrency. India is the 2nd largest population in the world and look, they already legalized cryptocurrency, also in South Korea. There are many good news related to crypto are spreading faster and become a trending. I hope that the value of bitcoin also become developed and become higher again so that it will attract people to use it and know the advantages of it to their economy.

Yes, but I think it's rather in terms of mining and trading of cryptocurrencies. This is great news as there are numerous number of Korean projects that could use the services of exchange platforms and over the counter platforms as well. The cost of electricity is also very cheap in Korea and this can also help make the mining of bitcoin decentralized apart from having a very large number of miners located in China.

Yes, you are right, I also saw in the past week, more than a few countries have added a Green light to crypto in 2020, I am sure there are some countries that want to try like Korea.

If I see, think, crypto 2020, it will increase and be brilliant, given that some of the top countries have turned on the green light for crypto in the last few days, In this case it becomes a positive straw for other countries if the news about Korea makes crypto illegal at the moment.

China is a little stubborn and last time I heard news about China regarding cryptocurrency is that there are creating their own government-backed cryptocurrency. I think they don't like to be not in control since Bitcoin can't be controlled that easily. I don't know what motivation that could possibly change its mind. Seems like their neighbors are more open minded than they are. I expect that more would follow especially here in Eastern and South-East Asia where Bitcoin legalities are coming up one by one and countries who didn't ban nor support crypto are on their way to enact a law to improve the status of cryptocurrencies in their respective countries.

India has not legalized bitcoin, it just allows people to use bitcoin. legalize Is create laws and these laws are passed in parliament


To my knowledge only Japan and South Korea are the ones that will legalize bitcoin. other countries only allow people to use bitcoin


wait 15 years from now. china will not legalize bitcoin anytime soon. the maximum that can happen in 5 years Is: china will allow people to have exchanges in china again

This is a welcome development, kudos to South Korea government,  a huge news for crypto lovers in South Korea,  bitcoin is gradually gaining the attention it requires, two days ago India lifted the ban on crypto trading, a ban which was placed in 2018, It seems that the the Indian government realize the importance and impact of trading cryptocurrency will bring to the country positively. I believe within the next 5 to10 years bitcoin adoption would have gone more than we expected.

There is a lot of good news this week, right ... moreover, everything is related to the legality of cryptocurrency, this can be a supporting factor for the trend up, and yes get ready for halving and big pump. Cryptocurrency in South Korea has developed quite well since it was first mentioned in 2017 regarding the taxation system there. There is also a lot of crypto-asset trading there, so this is a good step for wider cryptocurrency adoption.

Germany as well

https://crypto-potential.com/post/germany-recognizes-bitcoin-as-a-legal-financial-instrument

This step is really very much awaited where some countries have lifted the ban and will fully accept it, especially in the near future it will be close to halving, of course, a variety of positive news will continue to emerge about the rise of bitcoin from now on and on.

pumping will definitely continue to occur where now little by little has experienced a good recovery.

That's correct, most of the people here know that Bitcoin is illegal in China and it is prohibited to use it in that country but the truth is just what you just said. Hope that the FUD issue will be resolve soon but I know it will be very hard to sop those people who do this kind of news spreading for their own benefit.

i know that btc have issues in china before but i also heard about that the issues were now fix so i assume china is now a btc freindly country again  however there are now issues china is currently facing and that is the corona virus   . btc are still going to be affected this way    . anyway its nice to know that south korea also join the ride of allowing btc   . not just korea but other countries were also following too , i mainly heard news about country accepting cryptos  lately   .  this is now the time that we are waiting for    .

Wow!!! Just right after the unbanning happened in India in which took place for more than 2 years now South Korean Government finally adopted Bitcoin?
Though i have not seen the effect in market but i a sure this will bring growth in this coming event.
and also we know how great country South Korea is so
if time comes that the Koreans finally learned the objective and advantage of Bitcoin?specially the growing numbers of popular Korean artist all over the world (Of course asian is number 1) i can vouch that their promotion of Bitcoin will really bring us all fortune here.
I can’t wait to see the Black Pink endorses bitcoin in their concerts 😂

There is some country that banned Bitcoin like Bangladesh and others. it would be helpful when those countries lifted their ban like the Central Bank of India did. nevertheless, if they see these big countries legalizing bitcoin one after another, I'm sure they will think about implementing it in their country as well.

Wow.its really a great achievement for cryptocurrency.But we are really waiting to be legalized very soon in our Country 'Bangladesh'.Hoping for the best.

Awesomely perfect, for the news coming at this time of the year when Bitcoin price has been down will encourage more hold and the market will grow bigger and higher. Although this will gradually have some good and positive impact on the market, when this is done we're going to see another all time high temporary before the event schedule to take place later this year. Hope other countries that are yet to venture into cryptocurrency do that before time runs out on them. Also, those who still hold on their ban on Bitcoin or cryptocurrency should rethink their actions.

Maybe the Asian countries have realized it late that they need to accept Bitcoin to compete with the western world currencies. Hope, more countries might follow the trend and accept bitcoins in the future.

Actually the breaking news was really interesting because to the point that they are now legalizing bitcoin in some country especially right now that the news is legalization of bitcoin in south Korea.
I hope that all of the asian countries will adapt bitcoin because this will really a big help for us to the future transactions and to be honest western country are now accepting bitcoin and other cryptocurrency because they are believing that in the future they will need if in terms of their transaction and they can use it as a l currency for paperless transaction.

This is already at least expected right when japan welcomed bitcoin into its financial system. Japan is one of the most advance countries in Asia and for sure their actions are the cause of why South Korean has considered legalizing it too. I want to see Singapore and the Philippines totally accepting bitcoin.

We can expect the the Asian countries are now pro crypto, and this is indeed a great news as South Korea is a great contribution to the adoption of crypto.
Bitcoin will lead the way again to a new bull run, this kind of news has a bigger impact in the long run and that will make bitcoin more bullish.

not actually that we can expect that asian countries are no pro and want to adapt crypto but instead they are just competing with the western countries because they are the one who are getting in the top because of the cryptocurrency maybe the asian countries are starting to adopting cryptocurrency bitcoin or legalization of it because they are seeing a positive impact of it to the economic growth of their country and may be the citizen of this will probably may enjoy and becomes more aware of the new system of the technology.

China will accecpt bitcoin soon, because they are launching their own crypto currency because without accepting the wold's biggest crypto currency they will not make strong thier own crypto currency , if they will not accept bitcoin then world's will not accecpt the chinese currency so they have to admit forcefully .

Its only first step of real adoption

That was a huge impact today that one of the largest country today are already accepted the use of cryptocurrency and this is a good news for everyone today one by one that all of the largest countries now are adopting the use of bitcoin because they know the potential of the use of bitcoin as a payment to our bills, sending funds without hassle and also it is more secured than going into the banks having a lot of money and now we are using the bitcoin and pay all the things we need to do in just a single device and it is already done. We are hoping to make more future profit with the huge acceptance of the South Korea to the world of cryptocurrency and to the bitcoin.

Most of the news/article that I have seen on the last couple of days is about bitcoin adaption, acceptance in a certain country. In fact, South Korea also belongs to the advance country and it's because of their technologies and IMO, it's totally good how they accept and legalize the top 1 cryptocurrency in the market and by just seeing this kind of news will help us to bring more adaption. But, I'm still curious about what will gonna happen if all countries will accept like it can be the key to achieve a great price in the market or bitcoin will become a legal currency.


AFAIK, China already supported Blockchain technologies and I also see the impact of it in the price especially in just a couple of hours bitcoin spike up to 10,000$. Even they will not accept bitcoin still their cryptocurrency will have supporters like their citizens who gonna use it. China is a powerful country, and there are many investors and companies will going to use that currency so I guess whether they accept bitcoin or not still their currency will also stand out among all cryptocurrency.

Hard to understand what you are saying but I guess you are trying to say that the Chinese government must make bitcoin legal in order to make their own crypto currency. They will need to accept bitcoin so that the world accepts their own crypto currency. Lol. No. This won't happen. The coins they will make are going to be heavily regulated. Those government based crypto currency are just going to be like the traditional currency, but they can be used online. The crypto currencies they make will be easily traceable by the government. There won't be any financial freedom or privacy if people uses such coins. People would just ditch the government made coin, but alas, the government will force it upon them.

Then I actually want to see the entire globe totally accepting bitcoins.  ;D This would not be impossible but this would surely need huge time. We have already seen that most of the countries have started showing a significant growth towards cryptocurrencies which would even make many other countries think about the same.

I am wondering that would it affect the economy of the South Korea? If yes, than many more countries too would legalize cryptocurrencies to stabilize or increase their economy. This would be a historic moment for bitcoins than as they would start getting accepted in local business where you can use bitcoins as a mean of payment. Bitcoins would than turn out to be a global currency.

OP: Most of the countries you mentioned at the last time of your post does not really have legalized cryptocurrencies but they have started regulating the trading of cryptocurrencies. Also south Korea legalizing crypto transactions would make billions of people access cryptos.

This would eventually upraise the price for bitcoins as we are currently being experiencing. There would be time when many more countries would legalize bitcoins and that time, bitcoins would have an instant pump and perhaps we might see bitcoins on a another all time high peak. Even Germany has stated that cryptos are a financial instrument which would also make the Germans have benefits from buying bitcoins.

Not illegal, it's just that there are no binding rules. Lately, it has become officially legal because the draft law related to Reporting and Use of Certain Financial Information in cryptocurrency has been approved by the South Korean government. Thus all people involved in cryptocurrency, such as developers, miners, traders, etc. must comply with financial reporting requirements. The development of cryptocurrency is very good in South Korea, the community is strong and has been involved in early crypto, focused on the blockchain, which is why many strong and good projects originated from there. The existence of this legality will further strengthen the adoption of cryptocurrency and blockchain, hopefully, it can provide a good domino effect for other countries in Asia and the World.