The South Korean government has announced that it will embark on a “crackdown” on illegal crypto transactions, including those made on international crypto exchanges – following a meeting of high-powered political leaders, law enforcers and financial regulators.
Chosun reported that the Second Deputy Secretary of State Moon Seung-wook had convened a meeting of the Financial Services Commission, the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, the Ministry of Justice and the National Police Agency in a bid to tackle what the government has labeled an “overheated market.” Last time Seoul made noises like these, it followed up with a mini-crypto crackdown, which involved a (still extant) total initial coin offering (ICO) ban.
Janet Cho, an IT journalist based in Seoul, told Our,
“The role of banks is key. If banks get cold feet, or scared off by the ‘crackdown,’ things could escalate.”
On Twitter, it appears that most will not be frighted off so easily.
One poster wrote that they did not want to “blame the government,” but opined that with “crazily escalating real estate prices,” the “only way” to escape the trap of low wages and increasingly expensive cost of living was via crypto.
Crypto markets appear totally undented thus far, with BTC trading on Upbit for prices of around 12% higher than Binance, per Scolkg data at the time of writing.
__
Learn more:
– Here Are the Ways Governments Could Attack Bitcoin – and None of them Sound Hot
– South Koreans Warned to Pay Tax on Crypto Held on Foreign Exchanges
– Crypto Community Asks Who’s Next As SEC Hits Decentralized LBRY
– Can’t Beat Crypto Regulators? Educate Them
– Financial Sector Players Call for Improved KYC Regulations
– Updated FATF Crypto Guidelines Still ‘Predicated on Centralized Control’