South Korea Will Not Ban Cryptocurrencies

South Korea’s finance minister has said that he does not intend on banning cryptocurrencies. When asked, Kim Dong-yeon said; “there is no intention to ban or supress the cryptocurrency [market]” He has said that instead, he wants to regulate the exchanges, and avoid following in China’s footsteps who recently made headlines after they took the drastic step of shutting down all of the domestic exchanges. Cryptocurrencies are massive in South Korea, which is why regulating them is so important, especially since the country has experienced increased scrutiny of cryptocurrency trading, after they decided to calm the overheated market. This week alone has seen the introduction of new rules surrounding the field, which prevents the use of anonymous virtual accounts for trading. Whereas before, transactions were very hard to trace, and could remain anonymous, these rules mean that individuals must, by law, use their real names on bank and exchange accounts. Failure to do this, will face penalties, although it is unclear at this stage what these penalties would be. The country had previously hinted that the government might be planning on banning cryptocurrency exchanges altogether, particularly after the government made plans to quell the market. This speculation is believed to have been linked to the sudden drop in the prices of many different cryptocurrencies which was seen soon after this news broke. South Korea is one of the worlds biggest markets for trading Bitcoin and many other digital currencies, which is why this news came as such as shock, particularly when it was hinted that they would be banning the exchanges altogether. South Korean officials soon started to move to calm the markets though, and the presidential office said in early January that a plan to ban the trading of cryptocurrencies is; “one of the measures prepared by the Ministry of Justice, but it’s not a measure that has been finalised.” Original Image Source: Flickr Sponsored by