It’s been a good week for Bitcoin. The dollar price is up more than 3 percent to around $9,500. That $10,000 ceiling is looking more fragile than ever. One sign that the ceiling may be about to break is the decline in Google searches for “Bitcoin.” According to Google Trends, search interest is the lowest since December 2019. Last time search interest fell by such a degree, the price climbed around 50 percent. One coin in which interest is running high—and putting up prices—is pennies. A slowdown in coin production caused by the coronavirus has led to a shortage of …

Chainlink (LINK) is integrating with CenterPrime to bring a foreign exchange, or FX, rate data feed from the Korean banks to the DeFi space. “A breakthrough for Korean fintech industry” CenterPrime, a Hyperledger based project, has access to the Korean open banking API that streams FX rate data from several local banks. According to CenterPrime’s press release, this is a major milestone for the Korean fintech space. They noted: “This integration with Chainlink marks a major breakthrough for the Korean fintech industry. For the first time in history, applications will be able to access decentralized foreign exchange rates compiled by …

The South Korean police have launched an investigation into the source of leaked information about the government’s new crypto tax legal amendments. Social media users and private blogs had revealed details of the changes before it was made official this week. According to the Kyunghyang Shinmun, the first article featuring leaked information was published in a state-themed site, which rapidly spread across the crypto communities, and was picked up by other media outlets. The Metropolitan Investigation Team of the Sejong District Police is leading the search into who leaked the full details of Seoul’s plans. It’s not the first time …

The Bank of Korea has reportedly chosen to establish a “Digital Innovation department” through organizational reform in the second half of this year, according to the local news on July 22. Leveraging innovative technologies for efficiency The Bank plans to introduce a number of different technologies, such as artificial intelligence and blockchain, through the digital innovation department. The department will perform tasks such as implementing new digital technology policies and expanding the latest digital infrastructure. An official from Bank of Korea commented that: “We will improve work efficiency by applying minutes from meeting minutes to financial and economic indicator trends …

A K-drama series titled “Romantic Hacker” is set to air online in October across South Korea. It focuses on crypto and blockchain-related topics and is linked to a romance story. The show is slated to film in August. According to Sports Donga, K-pop star Kwon Hyun-bin will be featured in the series as the male lead, “Jaemin.” The story follows the hack of a crypto trading platform called “Jeju International Crypto Exchange.” Jaemin will fight a gang of highly skilled hackers that attempt to steal the money from the exchange. Although the talent agency in charge of hiring actors and …

The South Korean government has announced a 20% tax rate for income generated from cryptocurrency trading. Following a Tax Development Review Committee meeting on July 22, the Ministry of Economy and Finance published its revised tax code detailing the new rules. In a section headed, “Taxation on Virtual Asset Transaction Income,” the ministry introduced the new rules with a note that at present, both personal (resident and non-resident) and foreign corporations’ virtual assets are non-taxable. The government states that introducing taxation for virtual assets is now necessary, pointing to the approach taken by other countries, where cryptocurrencies are already taxed …

A South Korean court has sentenced an unnamed 43-year-old man to two years and six months in prison for his participation in a $249 million crypto mining pyramid scheme. According to Yonhap Lee Sang-wook, the judge at the Incheon District Court who made the announcement, the crypto mining pyramid scheme is still under investigation. The indicted was allegedly a secretary of the illegal company from May 1 to September 23, 2017. No details were given about the magnitude of his involvement, nor the specific cryptocurrency involved in the fraud. Police said that he played an active role by sending fake …

The lack of regulatory uncertainty in South Korea is causing major Korean cryptocurrency exchanges to lose international traders and turn their focus on the domestic audience. Speaking to Cointelegraph, a spokesperson of the South Korean exchange Upbit expressed his concern about their platform facing issues with providing fiat to crypto trading to its users: “Providing fiat trading via authenticated banking accounts has been a key issue for us as we were unable to provide the service for over two years.” New partnership as a partial solution To partially solve the challenge, Upbit on June 23 partnered with an internet-only bank …

Major South Korean conglomerate Hanwha Group is cementing its involvement in the cryptocurrency industry with a new investment. Hanwha Investment & Securities, a securities brokerage subsidiary of Hanwha Group, has participated in a 4 billion won ($3.3 million) funding round in crypto firm CrossAngle. Xangle is specialized in collecting corporate disclosures for crypto Announcing the news on July 16, CrossAngle said that the Series A2 investment is expected to enable the company to develop an infrastructure for institutionalizing crypto data services. Incorporated in Singapore, CrossAngle is building Xangle, a public crypto disclosure service focused on providing transparent data for cryptocurrencies …

The South Korean government plans to invest over $48.2 billion in Blockchain and other Industry 4.0 technologies by 2025. The nation’s goal is to promote the digitization of all industries in the coming post-pandemic era. According to ZDNet Korea, President Moon Jae-in praised “several benefits” that the new industrial revolution could bring to the country. Moon elaborated: “The fourth industrial revolution and digital civilization are the future of humanity that has already begun. The national development strategy to advance in the trend is the Korean version of the new deal. It is possible to jump from the older economy to …

South Korean private sector members recently discussed a crypto-related taxation bill meant to establish capital gains tax for cryptocurrencies. During these discussions on July 13, members indicated crypto gains taxes could rise as high as 20%. Cryptocurrencies could be considered as “goods” Proposed amendments to existing laws also plan to classify cryptocurrencies as “goods,” rather than currencies. Lawmakers have established that virtual assets can be considered as electronic certificates of economic value that can be traded electronically. However, when the transactions are for sales purposes, it could be viewed as an asset. A South Korean court referenced Bitcoin (BTC) in …

The COVID-19 crisis has brought many new users to the world of cryptocurrencies. One of the main concerns for users, however, is whether their bank cards may be blocked due to the purchase of a cryptocurrency, or when withdrawing funds from a crypto account. Can this risk be prevented? Since the COVID-19 outbreak and people’s subsequent desire to protect their savings, interest in cryptocurrency has continued to grow. A June 2020 survey conducted by The Tokenist found that 45% of respondents from 17 countries now prefer to invest in Bitcoin (BTC) rather than stocks, real estate or gold. For comparison’s …