On Thursday morning, Reuters UK reported the Lawyers’ Association of South Korea began to lobby the local lawmakers to introduce the legal basis for crypto regulation.
Korean lawyers eager to get crypto going in the country
The Korean Bar Association, of which every local lawyer has to be a member, has officially requested high authorities to accelerate the creation of the legal basis for regulating virtual currencies. In their opinion, regulation will provide an impulse for Blockchain and crypto to start developing properly. Besides, they believe regulation will prevent the negative sides of crypto from emerging.
The current state of the Korean market
The crypto industry in South Korea has been one of the most active and dynamic ones since this is one of the biggest crypto markets. That is even despite the severe stance the government took in 2017 over crypto regulation: it nearly imposed a ban on crypto trading but finally reversed it.
Nevertheless, this autumn, there have been reports emerging that Korea’s “Kimchi Premium,” the one that requires prices on crypto coins in the country be higher than on average around the world. That is the sign that the local community remains as keen on crypto as before.
To ICO or not to ICO?
The appeal of the Korean Bar Association to the government is happening at the period when the latter is about to announce the verdict as to whether or not Korea will copycat the Chinese anti-ICO attitude introduced by the Celestial in the fall of last year.
However, Korean authorities do not seem to hurry to come to any particular decision regarding their position on the DLT and crypto field. Reuters reports that the Korean government plans to conduct a wide research of both areas before making a final decision.
Korean regulator goes to the ‘dark side’
However, despite the possible shift of the government towards a positive view of crypto and DLT, the local regulator, the Financial Services Commission (FSC) has just recently made a warning that crypto assets to fund emerging startups may go against the South Korea’s Capital Markets Act. Thus, the chairperson of FSC Choi Jong-Ku has again confirmed his negative view against ICO.
The good part in this, however, is that Choi Jong-Ku’s recent statement says that crypto trading companies will not have any problems with banking services provided they follow all anti-money laundering rules and implement strict KYC procedures.
Arman Shirinyan
Alex Dovbnya
