South Korea potentially “banning” ICOs has unsettled markets Friday, as regulatory statements from earlier this month come back to haunt investors. Comments from the country’s Financial Supervisory Commission published in local news outlet FN News Sept. 3 hints that it will be illegal to issue digital tokens later this year.
"It is almost a gamble," the publication quotes an official as saying. "If there is an unlawful act, a third party has to intervene, but it is difficult to intervene until the transaction volume or price soars."
South Korea had issued strong warnings regarding ICOs around the time China announced its own full ban on the practice. As such, some commentators are now saying the negative outlook was effectively priced into the market.
Bitcoin had lost around 3.7 percent in the 24 hours to press time Friday, coming off multi-week highs to retest support at $4000. In December meanwhile, more stringent identification of virtual currency holders who convert funds to fiat will come into being, with the onus on businesses to ensure they can identify customers behind the conversions.
The source is here...South Korea has become one of the most important markets for holding and participating in an ICO which lately have bloomed widely as we now have all kind and imaginable of an ICO available on the market. South Korea can possibly stop all the ICOs to be held in the small nation state and this can have repercussions on the market. It is just fortunate that it seems that the market just ignore this latest news in the Sokor front.
I do hope that the ban will not last but that the government will come up with strict regulatory framework where project proponents have to undergo before given a permit to do business. While it is true that many ICOs are there just to take the money, there are also good ICOs around and we should require good ICOs to get scrutinized before they can offer the project to the public.