South Korea To Not Ban Cryptocurrency Exchanges Amid Illegal Trading

The finance minister of South Korea announced that the nation’s government will not shut down any cryptocurrency exchanges based in the country. The announcement was made by Kim Dong-yeon amid ongoing issues surrounding other government actions in South Korea.

There had been stories that South Korea’s government might try to outlaw cryptocurrency exchanges. However, Kim states that the government is aiming to regulate those exchanges and not get rid of them.

Kim also stated that the regulations needed in the industry have become more important than ever as there have been plenty of illegal trading activities going on within the market. The customers department stated that around $600 million in illegal foreign exchange trading surrounding currencies have taken place.

About the Trading

The official report from the finance minister states that around 637.5 billion won, or a little less than $600 million, in foreign exchange crimes have been detected. Nearly three-quarter of that total being lost involved cryptocurrencies.

One particular incident entailed an illegal exchange group collecting about $1.6 million from people through an electronic wallet program. This was used to transfer money abroad. The partner agent in the situation cashed out the money and then sent the settlement out to various clients.

Many trades worked with people moving more than $3,000 out of the country without informing tax authorities. South Korean law states that people who move this money out of the country must send information on the intentions of their trades and how they are to be used. Annual transactions of $50,000 or more in value will also have to be reported to the appropriate authorities to get them all sorted properly.

Concerning Times

This decision came about after the cryptocurrency market had been taken for a ride. The market had experienced a substantial decline in its value following worries about South Korea taking down its exchanges.

There have also been worries in South Korea about the cryptocurrency market being a potential bubble. There were issues that cryptocurrency exchanges could be too volatile as more people start to look into such currencies. These include many people who have no prior experience with trading any kind of asset on the open market.

Strict Changes

Some significant changes have come about in South Korea regarding the use of currencies. Authorities have recently announced that only real-name accounts can be used for cryptocurrency trading purposes. This is to keep money laundering from taking place while also increasing the general sense of liability among currency traders.

However, the changes have not done much to keep the values of various cryptocurrencies under control. The bitcoin particularly fell to around $8,000 for a period of time in the past week. This is thousands of dollars less than what it had been worth just a month earlier.

All South Korean authorities will continue to review the market to identify any potential acts of money laundering. Other instances of foreign exchange rules being broken will be analyzed in the process as well. The exchanges in the currency are expected to continue to run as well.