South Korea doubles down on efforts to track the origins of illegal virtual currency transactions as the U.S. warns of sanctions for those involved, with many fearing are banks from Seoul.
Financial Supervisory Service Governor Lee Bok-hyun argued that caution should be exercised in passing judgments on whether or not a digital asset can be categorized as a security.
South Korea sees a nearly 10% rise in illegal forex transactions tied with digital assets this 2022, forcing authorities to widen the crackdown on the market that led to the arrest of 16 individuals.
The Financial Supervisory Service has discovered KRW1.6 trillion ($1.2 billion) of forex transactions at five Woori Bank branches. Another KRW2.5 trillion ($1.9 billion) were carried out at 11 Shinhan Bank branches.
The unit is a joint financial and securities crime investigation team from the Financial Services Commission and the Financial Supervisory Service and was disbanded in 2020.
The country’s regulators have said they will use the Terra debacle to raise awareness among digital asset investors following the LUNA meltdown.
The Financial Supervisory Service will become more stringent with the digital assets sector as it booms in South Korea, including regulating NFTs and the metaverse.
South Korea will maintain its ban on initial coin offerings (ICOs), following analysis of a survey conducted by the country’s Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), on behalf of Korea’s chief financial regulator
An audit performed by an outside accounting firm revealed that Upbit, which has been hit with allegations of fraud, has done nothing wrong.
Upbit has been invaded by South Korean investigators following accusations of falsifying balance sheets to deceive investors.
Yoon Suk-heun, the new head of South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service, echoed what many others have stated—better cryptocurrency regulation would be beneficial to the industry.
Besides promoting acceptance of cryptocurrencies, a South Korean official would also like to see banks work closely with crypto exchanges.
