The head of South Korea’s central bank stated at a parliamentary audit that Bitcoin will not be regulated as a currency, but as a commodity.
During the National Assembly audit of the Bank of Korea (BOK), governor Lee Joo-yeol said: “it is difficult to look at [virtual currencies] as money by [definition] of Bank of International Settlements (BIS),” according to Yonhap News.
Lee also expressed the central bank’s current official stance on the regulation of cryptos:
“Regulation (of virtual currencies) is appropriate because it is regarded as a commodity. It [cannot be] regulated at the level of a currency.”
Despite this, Lee revealed that the central bank is not launching regulation soon: “It is not a situation for the Bank of Korea to take action at present.”
Last year, South Korea launched a digital currency task force to research regulatory and licensing parameters for bitcoin and bitcoin exchanges. CCN reported earlier in June that the participants ‘failed to agree on whether virtual currencies should be included in systems right now and how the systems will work if they are included.”
The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), the country’s financial regulator, banned initial coin offerings (ICOs) guided by the task force, leading to fears of a crackdown on the local cryptocurrency trading market, similar to what took place in China.
SOURCE: https://ibsintelligence.com/bitcoin-regulated-commodity-south-korea/
