Crackdown to contain crypto-related illegal activity says head of the Office for Government Policy Coordination
- Cryptocurrency to be regulated in South Korea
- Financial watchdog to monitor crypto trading
- Bitcoin selling at a premium in South Korea
Cryptocurrency is facing problems in many countries, and the latest government trying to regulate it is South Korea. The local South Korean news outlet Yonhap News Agency reported that the nation had announced a new crackdown on cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. The reason put forth is to put a lid on the ongoing digital assets trading boom is to stop crypto-related illegal activity.
Cryptocurrency transactions to be closely monitored.
According to Koo Yun-Cheol, cryptocurrency must be carefully monitored because of reports of illegal activities using virtual assets, head of the Office for Government Policy Coordination who was attending a vice-ministerial meeting on Monday. Yonhap News Agency reports that the Financial Services Commission will be tasked with improving surveillance of crypto wealth withdrawals affected with the help of local financial institutions. The commission will also try to sniff out any signs of potential money laundering and report them to the Financial Intelligence Unit.
High demand for Bitcoin
Crypto trading is booming in South Korea, and locals are even ready to pay a premium for getting their hands on the crypto wealth. This was reported by CryptoSlate earlier, and if Yonhap is to be believed, the price of Bitcoin is touching $72,000 (80 million won). And the crypto coin is trading at around $56,000 across the globe.
Cryptocurrency values highly inflated
Cryptocurrency is traded in exchanges highly deregulated compared to equities traded on central exchange platforms. “Kimchi Premium” is the name given to the highly inflated prices of crypto wealth. Therefore the prices can vary by a considerable margin across different regions of the country.
Local South Korean news outlet Yonhap News Agency reports that it was one reason why last week, the Bank of Korea Governor Lee Ju-you warned investors to be wary of cryptos’ high volatility and the possibility of financial instability. CoinMarketCap revealed that crypto trade produced roughly $21.6 billion in trading volume daily. It was far more than the amount generated by the country’s stock market (just over $17 billion)
