With the implementation of new rules from South Korea’s Financial Services Commission (FSC), many smaller cryptocurrency exchanges in the country fear they will be forced to shut down. These rules require each exchange to prove that it has a real-name account held at a Korean bank by Sept. 24, 2021 — the hitch being that domestic banks are refraining from engaging in any risk assessment for applicant exchanges, save for the country's top four trading platforms. Smaller exchanges are now reportedly considering suing the government over its alleged failure to take responsibility for much of its regulatory remit, according to …

Bids for Klaytn's native cryptocurrency KLAY spiked on Thursday after the South Korea-based public blockchain project confirmed its listing on Binance, one of the world's top cryptocurrency exchanges by volume. #Binance Will List @klaytn_official $KLAYhttps://t.co/41yyLvHS0I — Binance (@binance) June 24, 2021 The KLAY/USDT exchange rate surged 41.25% to an intraday high of $1.243. The pair's massive move uphill accompanied a dramatic intraday spike in trade volumes — 28.68 million so far into Thursday versus 13.05 million in the previous session, validating the bullish sentiment across the Klaytn market. The gains came on the prospect of Klaytn's global expansion after its …

South Korea's cryptocurrency market continues to transform under the weight of mounting regulatory pressures. Major crypto exchanges such as Upbit have this week moved to delist or warn against specific digital assets they have judged to be high-risk for investors. The trend, as local reporters note, has seemingly been sparked by the increasing level of intervention by financial regulators into crypto service providers' operations. Last week, Korea's Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) reportedly contacted 33 crypto trading platforms to warn that it would be conducting a field consultation before Sept. 24. These consultations aim to check whether or not the businesses …

Authorities in South Korea are continuing to propose and enact measures aimed at maintaining strict oversight over the nation’s crypto exchange market. These come amid a significant uptick in cryptocurrency trading volume, especially for altcoins. In May, South Korea’s Financial Services Commission (FSC) announced that the government is planning to enforce stricter regulatory policies on cryptocurrencies in general. This move comes as virtual asset service providers (VASPs) have been given until September to register with the appropriate state authorities. Crypto exchanges in South Korea were already under pressure even before this new set of stricter regulatory policies. The requirement for …

New rules announced by South Korea’s Financial Services Commission, or FSC, are expected to affect around 60 unauthorized cryptocurrency exchanges in the country, and a new policy for banks will require that they classify any crypto exchange clients as “high risk.” According to the Korea Times, the new guidelines were announced on Sunday and are intended to ensure that crypto exchanges strengthen their monitoring of transactions and uphold strong user ID requirements. Until now, only the four largest exchanges in South Korea have set up real-name accounts that have been cleared by banks. The FSC is justifying its measures by …

Victims of an alleged $3.6 billion crypto Ponzi scheme in South Korea are reportedly hampering the progress of a police investigation and a joint lawsuit — as they still believe in the project and hold out hopes of getting a return on their investments. On June 4, Korean law firm Daegon reportedly filed a joint complaint against V Global, its CEO, and three executives on behalf of 130 investors and the Gyeonggi Nambu Police Agency. The Gyeonggi Nambu Police Agency is reportedly investigating V Global for an alleged crypto Ponzi scheme that reportedly defrauded around 69,000 people out of 4 …

South Korea’s Financial Services Commission has moved to ban cross trading on crypto exchanges in the country. The move is part of a raft of amendments to the country’s Act on the Reporting and Use of Certain Financial Transaction Information. Cross trading, an illegal practice in many jurisdictions, involves offsetting buy and sell orders for the same asset (at the same price) without recording the transaction on the order book. However, according to a report by local media outlet Newsis, exchange operators in South Korea have bemoaned the planned prohibition stating that the move would cause significant disruptions to their …

Small and medium-sized exchanges in South Korea had a chance to express some of their grievances with the government during a recent meeting with financial regulators. According to a report by South Korean news outlet D.Street, the Financial Services Commission (FSC) convened a closed-door meeting with 20 crypto exchanges on Thursday. Inside sources quoted by D.Street say the closed-door session was a parley between the FSC’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) and the 20 crypto exchanges where the former expressed the government’s desire to implement its virtual asset service provider (VASP) report. Indeed, on May 28, the FSC issued a release …

With the crypto market turning up its pace of growth over the last year and a half, the idea behind central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) seems to have gained an increasing amount of traction among many governments and retail banking institutions. In this regard, as per a study recently released by consulting giant PwC, more than 60 central banks have been exploring the unique value proposition put forth by CBDCs. Furthermore, it bears mentioning that following the dawn of the coronavirus pandemic, the use of physical cash has continued to dwindle globally, with many now transitioning to digital payments in …

As cryptocurrency markets grew in the first quarter of 2021, South Korean banks saw record volumes of deposits and withdrawals to local crypto exchanges. South Korean commercial banks processed 64.2 trillion won ($57.9 billion) of transactions on real-name bank accounts linked to crypto exchanges in Q1 2021, according to data from Financial Supervisory Service acquired by Democratic Party member Kim Byung-wook. The Q1 results comprise data from lenders like Shinhan Bank, online bank K Bank and Korean NH NongHyup Bank, as well as four major local crypto exchanges including Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone and Korbit, local business publication The Maeil Business …

Over the past year or so, the crypto community in South Korea has had to adapt to a suite of new regulations and government frameworks tailored to the growing industry. With the regulatory landscape for digital assets thus undergoing a marked shift, there has nonetheless been some confusion as to which Korean government agency or regulatory authority is tasked with overseeing various aspects of crypto-related activities. According to a local report, a joint statement released on Friday aims to clarify these questions for a society of undeniable crypto enthusiasts. The statement outlines that the Financial Services Commission, or FSC, will …

On a day in which Bitcoin crashed briefly to $30,000 in a rampant bear market, the leading cryptocurrency never got anywhere close to that on Korean exchanges. The so-called “kimchi premium” saw to that, keeping the price of Bitcoin as much as $5,000 above its level on leading U.S. exchanges. The major reason for this kimchi premium is that Korea’s exchanges are fairly isolated by a combination of the country’s strict capital control laws preventing funds from leaving the country, and the tax code and anti-money laundering (AML) regulations that make it difficult for foreigners to use Korean exchanges — …