[2018-1-11] South Korea plans to ban Bitcoin - BBC

[hugeblack]

South Korea is planning a law to ban cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin being traded through its exchanges.

The justice minister said virtual currencies were causing the government "great concern".

Meanwhile, several Seoul cryptocurrency exchanges have been raided this week in a probe into alleged tax evasion.

Bitcoin fell about 7% to just under $13,800 on Thursday, although that decline may not be directly related to the South Korean decision.

Given the low levels of trading and relatively small number of people holding virtual currencies, wild price swings have become the norm, leading to an argument that paying too much attention to price rises and falls is futile.

Source : http://www.bbc.com/news/business-42645081

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[jseverson]

...wow that's sad. I never thought South Korea would take the China route, especially with the news that they were cooperating with Japan and China for regulations. This is a huge blow given how South Korea is one of the biggest crypto markets. Then again, China was too, and we survived that. This is probably going to cause less of an impact than that.

What's unclear though, is whether or not this is permanent. They raided exchanges for tax evasion, so they may just want to curb the growth while they form tax plans and the like.

[AllGoodNamesAreTaken]

Can't Koreans simply use Exchanges outside of Korea?

[A.Schweinsteiger]

Can't Koreans simply use Exchanges outside of Korea?

And how many of them are trading South Korean won, the national currency of South Korea?

[iamTom123]

...wow that's sad. I never thought South Korea would take the China route, especially with the news that they were cooperating with Japan and China for regulations. This is a huge blow given how South Korea is one of the biggest crypto markets. Then again, China was too, and we survived that. This is probably going to cause less of an impact than that. What's unclear though, is whether or not this is permanent. They raided exchanges for tax evasion, so they may just want to curb the growth while they form tax plans and the like.

This is not yet the final direction because the Ministry of Finance (or a similar agency I am not so sure) is not backing the idea of banning cryptocurrency trading maybe they feel that South Koreans will anyway get involved with this industry no matter if they go for a ban and that the government will end up as the loser in terms of possible tax revenues. What the government should do is to strengthen its tax laws and implementation so that everybody is paying the appropriate taxes. We are hoping that cooler heads and more rational approach would prevail in the end.

[BitHodler]

It's another article meant to cause panic in the market. It might very well be that they are just looking to further regulate the exchange market, and not get rid of them entirely.

In other words, as long as there hasn't been a ban, these news articles can be seen as rubbish. I wouldn't be surprised if this ends up being another attempt to get this market to plummet badly.

There is a lot money involved in getting this market to plummet, and for that reason we can't just take these news articles for face value, especially with how they get paid to write biased articles.

[Gotottack]

This is a natural government reaction as to something that appears to be decentralized in almost all forms except the fact that blockchain technology is helpful in so many ways. We cannot blame the South Korean government because they only want what is best for their country and their people. They might see it as something that is too wide for governmental control. Hence, they can only think of banning it because it sure is the easiest way to deal with such issue.

[AllGoodNamesAreTaken]

Can't Koreans simply use Exchanges outside of Korea?

And how many of them are trading South Korean won, the national currency of South Korea?

Yes, it makes things more complicated but it's not like that they can't trade anymore at all - except the government would make it illegal to own crypto currencies.

[greeklogos]

Firstly they move crypto exchange to banks and now talking about banning of crypto currency trading. South Korea is a huge player on crypto market and there is no doubt that exactly such news provoked the current fall of the price. Thanks God the decision is kinda not sure. I have really expected that they will be even more crypto welcome due to the Olympic games, I really thought they will sell tickets for bitcoin or other alts, but apparently it was just a dream.

[onnz423]

Looks like the decision is uncertain for now, the move will need to win the majority vote of the 297 board members.

The article states that this may take months or years to finalize, so looking at this near-term, it is unlikely to make much of a dent on the current valuation of BTC. As we speak, butcoin is already rallying back to $14,000.

Logically, most of the board members will have some holdings in BTC, thus it is not in their personal best interests to ban it. I think we'll see that the majority of the board will vote to deny the ban.

[casparthefriendly]

Wow I didn't know South Korea was like this.  I wonder what their motivation for this?

[gabbie2010]

Well the South Korean has taken a decision this will only has little or negligible impact on the price if bitcoin as we are experiencing now, recall the Chinese government took the same decision in 2017 which resulted in the temporary crashed in the price of bitcoin, which later recovered I am very optimistic and sure of recovery of the price after the sudden dip.

[aoluain]

...wow that's sad. I never thought South Korea would take the China route, especially with the news that they were cooperating with Japan and China for regulations. This is a huge blow given how South Korea is one of the biggest crypto markets. Then again, China was too, and we survived that. This is probably going to cause less of an impact than that.

What's unclear though, is whether or not this is permanent. They raided exchanges for tax evasion, so they may just want to curb the growth while they form tax plans and the like.

this is a bit of a bolt from the blue so to speak.
I was of the understanding also that s.korea were looking forward positively?
to regulating the crypto industry like Japan and Australia and China.

Is this another lets kick bitcoin in the stomach while its down news story as always?
this may not be a permanent action, lets hope not?

[SiberianWanderer]

Some sources are reporting that in reality the South Korean government is not planning to ban crypto trading, but just clamping down on unregulated exchanges and ensuring that KYC is enforced, since some exchanges there were allowing anonymous accounts and apparently many Chinese starting using South Korean exchanges after the exchanges in China were closed down.

[darkangel11]

Some sources are reporting that in reality the South Korean government is not planning to ban crypto trading, but just clamping down on unregulated exchanges and ensuring that KYC is enforced, since some exchanges there were allowing anonymous accounts and apparently many Chinese starting using South Korean exchanges after the exchanges in China were closed down.

Actually Chinese citizens can use Korean exchanges. It's not against the law in any of these countries. Although BTC is banned in China the ban concerned the exchanges. Mines and private owners can do whatever they like and they can use foreign exchanges.
As for anonymous accounts it's funny that the governments have suddenly felt threaten buy anonymous cryptocurrency trading when similar things were being done for years. For instance people used to trade in game currencies, collectibles, precious metals, jewelry, and nobody cared about those deals being done under the table.

[squatter]

South Korea is planning a law to ban cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin being traded through its exchanges.

The justice minister said virtual currencies were causing the government "great concern".

Meanwhile, several Seoul cryptocurrency exchanges have been raided this week in a probe into alleged tax evasion.

It's still too early to jump to conclusions. I have one contact in Korea who says the headlines are FUD. We'll have to wait and see. Coinone confirmed that the National Tax Service had "visited" the premises, so this does feel a bit like the PBOC "visits" that preceded the Chinese ban on domestic exchanges.

To be fair, I can understand the magnitude of concern here. The ridiculous price premiums on Korean exchanges sometimes make me wonder what's going to happen to all these people pouring money into cryptocurrency (and especially altcoins) and shifting all their attention to speculation. South Korea is the same place where peoples' children have died from neglect/starvation because their parents got too involved in gaming....

[superjeyy]

...wow that's sad. I never thought South Korea would take the China route, especially with the news that they were cooperating with Japan and China for regulations. This is a huge blow given how South Korea is one of the biggest crypto markets. Then again, China was too, and we survived that. This is probably going to cause less of an impact than that. What's unclear though, is whether or not this is permanent. They raided exchanges for tax evasion, so they may just want to curb the growth while they form tax plans and the like.

This is not yet the final direction because the Ministry of Finance (or a similar agency I am not so sure) is not backing the idea of banning cryptocurrency trading maybe they feel that South Koreans will anyway get involved with this industry no matter if they go for a ban and that the government will end up as the loser in terms of possible tax revenues. What the government should do is to strengthen its tax laws and implementation so that everybody is paying the appropriate taxes. We are hoping that cooler heads and more rational approach would prevail in the end.

I agree with iamTom123. I don't understand why South Korea thinks Bitcoin brings great concern. Maybe its because they don't have appropriate control over it but I think they should see the usage of Bitcoin as an opportunity rather than a threat or a concern to the country as Bitcoin can actually work to improve economic growth. It's sad to see one of the most innovative and progressive country deny development for the betterment of the future.

[1Referee]

Wow I didn't know South Korea was like this.  I wonder what their motivation for this?

Is billions and billions in traded crypto assets not enough motivation? Imagine how it must feel for the government looking at crypto currencies that have just recently taken off there, and are already generating billions of dollars worth of daily volumes. Imagine how much money is going through these exchanges once the adoption there picks up even further, and that's something the government is unsure about, and perhaps even afraid of. I however don't really know how much factual information these sort of articles have. In the very early days of the China ban rumors people were saying fud this and that, but it became reality after a while. Not saying we'll see a similar situation become reality, but we also can't discard it.

[pixie85]

BBC is spreading FUD.
They either don't know how legislation works which I doubt, or they want to cause panic on the market. The ban is just a projects from someone who opposes the cryptocurrencies. Most likely a bank is behind it. It will have to go through voting and even if it's immediately accepted it will take a year before it gets implemented and there will be numerous protests from crypto supporters. Korea is not China. You don't get shot there for protesting.

[A.Schweinsteiger]

Can't Koreans simply use Exchanges outside of Korea?

And how many of them are trading South Korean won, the national currency of South Korea?

Yes, it makes things more complicated but it's not like that they can't trade anymore at all - except the government would make it illegal to own crypto currencies.

But are they really up to that? It would look rather strange if we take into account that the Korean government was very loyal toward cryptocurrencies before. Why would they want to change their attitude so drastically now?