South Korea Threatening to Close Bitcoin Exchanges

South Korea wants to possibly keep exchanges shut down.

The bitcoin has been a highly valuable investment in South Korea in recent time but there are concerns over speculation around the currency that could keep its value from moving up. The South Korean government has particularly threatened to shut down some bitcoin exchanges in the country.

This development caused the value of the bitcoin to decline substantially. The bitcoin started trading on December 28 at 0:00 UTC at $15,600 but fell to $14,300 around 20:00 UTC. This included a drop of about $1,000 in the matter of one hour early on in the day.

The currency fell below $14,000 for a period as well. The development comes amid concerns over how the bitcoin could be handled in the future. Although the bitcoin remains a popular investment option, there have been worries over how the currency is not growing in value as much as it had been in the past.

The value has fallen dramatically since earlier in December when the total got to around $20,000. The currency has lost more than a quarter of its value over this time period.

The move occurs as South Korea has become one of the world’s top countries for bitcoin trading. The country has adopted the bitcoin and other digital currencies as popular investment materials for people to utilize.

Changes in South Korea

The South Korean government is asking for all cryptocurrency transactions to include the real names of all parties involved. This would erase one commonplace benefit of many currencies as some of them offer anonymous transaction support. Also, banks would no longer be allowed to offer virtual accounts to cryptocurrency exchanges.

But it is the Ministry of Justice that has made the biggest waves in the cryptocurrency field. The ministry is considering closing off exchanges as a means of curbing the severity of the speculation currency going on within the market. The general worries in the market come as there are significant changes in how the currency is being handled and offered to many.

Virtual exchanges would be impacted. Physical exchanges that do work with such currencies are still allowed to operate although those groups are few and far between in terms of who is available to help with managing currency operations in the country.

Worries About the Economy

The greatest fear that South Korea has over the bitcoin comes from how the currency may be used as a retail product. In particular, regulators in the country are looking to control how the currency is trading and how it may be used as a means of keeping it from harming the economy. This might entail the potential for the bitcoin exchanges in the country to stop working.

Significant Growth

The threats from regulators in South Korea come as the bitcoin continues to be one of the top investments for people to use within the country. The bitcoin has become immensely popular in South Korea with close to a quarter of the world’s bitcoin transactions originating out of that country. Any changes to how the country uses the currency could potentially hurt the value of the bitcoin although it is unclear as to what impact would come about.

Michael Fox