The South Korean government has announced some stern regulations on a proposed ban on the cryptocurrency exchanges after “sufficient consultation and coordination of opinions,” the country’s government said Monday. Last week, South Korean Justice Minister Park Sand-ki announced that the government is preparing a bill to ban trading via cryptocurrency exchanges. The same day, two of the biggest crypto exchanges, Coinone and Bithumb, were raided.
According to a news report by a local news agency Yonhap, Korean Traders will have to use their real names for cryptocurrency trading accounts. This measure will take effect by the end of this month.
“The proposed shutdown of exchanges that the justice minister recently mentioned is one of the measures suggested by the justice ministry to curb speculation. A government-wide decision will be made in the future after sufficient consultation and coordination of opinions,” the country’s Office for Government Policy Coordination said in a statement, according to South Korean news agency Yonhap.
This explanation about the government’s position follows comments last Thursday from South Korean Finance Minister Kim Dong-Yeon, who said that the matter required more consultation from the related government departments.
“All government ministries agree on the need for a government response to an overheating in cryptocurrency speculation and for a degree of regulation,” Kim told reporters, according to Yonhap.
“The issue of banning exchanges that the justice minister talked about yesterday is a proposal by the Justice Ministry and it needs more coordination among ministries.”
South Korea has been trying to harness speculative cryptocurrency trading in the last few months as interest in the market has increased. In September, the Financial Services Commission stated that it would prohibit a controversial crowdfunding practice in the cryptocurrency space known as initial coin offerings (ICO). ICO is a way to raise funds for startups, who sell off new virtual currencies in return for other more recognized cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum.
These cryptocurrencies are priced higher in the South Korean exchange compared to the rest of the world. On Monday, CoinMarketCap, an industry website stated that it has excluded some of the South Korean cryptocurrencies from its data due to “extreme divergence in prices.”
