South Korean gov't holds emergency meeting re curbing cryptocurrency speculation

[callndrew]

Here is the report. Extract from https://news.bitcoin.com/south-korea-emergency-cryptocurrency-regulation/

South Korea Releases Emergency Measures for Cryptocurrency Regulation
South Korea’s government released emergency measures for cryptocurrency regulation on Thursday. Bitcoin exchanges will now be regulated. Among other measures, there will be a ban on banks, minors, and foreigners trading cryptocurrency as well as a clampdown on virtual bank accounts needed to trade cryptocurrencies in Korea.

Regulating Crypto Exchanges:
Issuance of ‘Information Security Management System (ISMS)’ certification next year is required. We will not allow virtual currency transactions unless the requirements for protection of investors, transparency of transactions and other measures are met through prompt legislation in the near future.”

A Ban on Banks, Minors, and Foreigners
The government’s plan to impose a ban on banks from engaging in any cryptocurrency activities. The government also decided to ban financial companies from buying, securing, and investing in virtual currency. The measures also impose a ban on foreigners and minors. “Foreigners who are not residing in Korea or minors including high school students will not be able to open an account for virtual currency transactions in Korea.” Those who already own cryptocurrencies will not be able to make additional trades.

Clampdown on Virtual Bank Accounts
The government’s measures include a “clampdown that called for banks to stop issuing virtual accounts for digital currency exchanges.” Banks are asked to confirm whether the owner of the cryptocurrency account is a minor or a foreigner. However, a bank official told the publication that “banks only issue virtual accounts to the exchanges and do not know who the virtual accounts are issued to.”

Crime, Monitoring Trends, and Taxation
The government also decided to strengthen the crackdown and punishment of cryptocurrency related crimes, including the investment and recruitment of multi-level sales, fictitious coin sales, and illicit transactions. In addition, the news outlet conveyed:
The police are planning to conduct a special crackdown on ‘hacking and personal information infringement cases’ related to virtual currency, as well as investigating the actual conditions of virtual currency transaction refunds.

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[squatter]

Here is the report. Extract from https://news.bitcoin.com/south-korea-emergency-cryptocurrency-regulation/

All in all, this isn't what I had feared. I honestly thought it might be another "China bans bitcoin" situation, given their abrupt prohibition of ICOs in September and the overall insanity of the Korean crypto markets. The regulation of cryptocurrency exchanges was fully expected at this point.

I find this interesting, though:

A Ban on Banks, Minors, and Foreigners
The government’s plan to impose a ban on banks from engaging in any cryptocurrency activities. The government also decided to ban financial companies from buying, securing, and investing in virtual currency. The measures also impose a ban on foreigners and minors. “Foreigners who are not residing in Korea or minors including high school students will not be able to open an account for virtual currency transactions in Korea.” Those who already own cryptocurrencies will not be able to make additional trades.

The ban on minors trading cryptocurrencies is no surprise; I'm surprised there weren't already laws in place that prevented that.

But it's interesting that the government is doubling down on prohibiting "banks from engaging in any cryptocurrency activities" at a time when regulated institutional-level futures markets are launching in the US. The Korean government is obviously trying to clamp down on speculation.

[eaLiTy]

For a correction to happen in this market we need to have a news like this,we might see a small correction in terms of alt coin market but the price of bitcoin will continue to grow till the holidays and then i do expect a good correction,all of my calculations were wrong in the past few months regarding bitcoin and i am sure everyone got it wrong but we need a good correction now and hopefully the speculation of Korean government coming out with banning of exchange might trigger something.

[stompix]

Regulating Crypto Exchanges:
Issuance of ‘Information Security Management System (ISMS)’ certification next year is required. We will not allow virtual currency transactions unless the requirements for protection of investors, transparency of transactions and other measures are met through prompt legislation in the near future.”

What do they mean by "transparency of transactions" , other than verifying the identity of the customer how can you improve this?
I really don't like the sound of it.

A Ban on Banks, Minors, and Foreigners
The government’s plan to impose a ban on banks from engaging in any cryptocurrency activities. The government also decided to ban financial companies from buying, securing, and investing in virtual currency. The measures also impose a ban on foreigners and minors. “Foreigners who are not residing in Korea or minors including high school students will not be able to open an account for virtual currency transactions in Korea.” Those who already own cryptocurrencies will not be able to make additional trades.

Not that bad, minors should be banned in any country, and foreigners buying cryptos in large amounts are only speculators.
But without those we can experience some high price differences between exchanges, and a lot of volume loss for bithumb.
I wonder how many chinese are trading there , if any.

Clampdown on Virtual Bank Accounts
The government’s measures include a “clampdown that called for banks to stop issuing virtual accounts for digital currency exchanges.” Banks are asked to confirm whether the owner of the cryptocurrency account is a minor or a foreigner. However, a bank official told the publication that “banks only issue virtual accounts to the exchanges and do not know who the virtual accounts are issued to.”

So the banks issue virtual accounts but they don't have a clue who is they issue to.
Lol, what a joke.

Crime, Monitoring Trends, and Taxation
The government also decided to strengthen the crackdown and punishment of cryptocurrency related crimes, including the investment and recruitment of multi-level sales, fictitious coin sales, and illicit transactions. In addition, the news outlet conveyed:
The police are planning to conduct a special crackdown on ‘hacking and personal information infringement cases’ related to virtual currency, as well as investigating the actual conditions of virtual currency transaction refunds.

Actually I like this part.
Especially the selling of "fictitious" coins, as it means a clear stop to all the fake ICO.
Hopefully they will enforce this with a heavy punishment in jail time and other countries follow so we can get rid of them once for all.

[speaktome]

For a correction to happen in this market we need to have a news like this,we might see a small correction in terms of alt coin market but the price of bitcoin will continue to grow till the holidays and then i do expect a good correction,all of my calculations were wrong in the past few months regarding bitcoin and i am sure everyone got it wrong but we need a good correction now and hopefully the speculation of Korean government coming out with banning of exchange might trigger something.

Really many would like a correction in the price right now but remember the impact that the news from China for example those had in previous months and if we compare it to the prices of now,can clearly be seen that those practically did not have much effect and it was only momentarily,so the same story could  be repeated again maybe,but we will definitely have to wait for more news from the Asian country.

[South Park]

South Korea accounts for the #1, #10 and #14 cryptocurrency exchanges by volume. Yes, I know there could be wash volume involved, but as we all know from the Chinese exchanges' history, that doesn't necessarily matter. Korea seems to be approaching Japan with regard to market relevance, and Koreans are especially active in the altcoin markets.

So, the government called an emergency meeting yesterday. The topic: methods for curbing cryptocurrency speculation. Sources at the Bank of Korea say that the government will announce measures targeting cryptocurrency traders by the end of the week. They already banned ICOs in September. According to the article:

Top officials at the country's finance regulator have openly mulled a bitcoin trading ban and have compared trading in the cryptocurrency to a Ponzi scheme.

Could this be fuel for a price correction?

A correction may happen if they take action but traders are not going to sit down and just accept that, and then they are going to move their money to Japan markets, if South Korea does ban bitcoin trading they are going to regret in the future when exchanges begin to pay a lot of taxes.

[richardsNY]

A correction may happen if they take action but traders are not going to sit down and just accept that, and then they are going to move their money to Japan markets, if South Korea does ban bitcoin trading they are going to regret in the future when exchanges begin to pay a lot of taxes.

South Korea will always be a contributing factor to Bitcoin's growth, so that will not change even when they 'change' things up a bit. Great thing is that current growth is coming from all over the world, and for that reason isn't centered in just one country like how things were when China was a big deal. It should result in a more evenly distributed growth that won't get impacted much if one aspect doesn't want to cooperate, or even withdraws itself from the market. This is what we all have been waiting for, and it finally starts getting shape, which is something we can be proud of, especially if you look back at where we have started.

[olushakes]

We can only wait for the outcome of their meeting which I am expecting that nothing much is going to change at all. South Korea is trying to create a niche for herself in the crypto world, but they still don't have the amount of control yet to be able to influence what happen to bitcoin in my opinion. They will only make some noises and they could even ban bitcoin but I am certain that will back stronger.

[aso118]

South Korea accounts for the #1, #10 and #14 cryptocurrency exchanges by volume. Yes, I know there could be wash volume involved, but as we all know from the Chinese exchanges' history, that doesn't necessarily matter. Korea seems to be approaching Japan with regard to market relevance, and Koreans are especially active in the altcoin markets.

So, the government called an emergency meeting yesterday. The topic: methods for curbing cryptocurrency speculation. Sources at the Bank of Korea say that the government will announce measures targeting cryptocurrency traders by the end of the week. They already banned ICOs in September. According to the article:

Top officials at the country's finance regulator have openly mulled a bitcoin trading ban and have compared trading in the cryptocurrency to a Ponzi scheme.

Could this be fuel for a price correction?

The action will just shift elsewhere. People speculated that Bitcoin will become irrelevant when the Chinese government shut down exchanges. But we saw that volumes didn't dip, the action just shifted to South Korea and Japan. It is not possible that one country's crackdown will result in Bitcoin's price crashing. A correction could occur, but this would be short-lived.

[MoonJeina]

I don't understand why there is so much panic about the "meeting" . Many meetings in different countires are conducted to get a decision for the use of crypto currencies . Korea is one of the most involved feild players of bitcoin .
Many altcoin projects belong to Korea . It will be very difficuly for government to totally curb bitcoin as the oppositions will not let that happen easily . These speculations are only giving more exposure to the bitcoin.