All Crypto Exchanges of South Korea Meet Requirements

Upon the conclusion of a rigorous review process, the Korean Blockchain Association (KBA) has stated that all the crypto exchanges of the country have been found to be in full compliance with the minimum criteria outlined by the body in April 2018. The KBA is a self-regulatory body involved in monitoring the operations of the crypto scene in South Korea and it had laid down a set of minimum requirements the crypto exchanges must follow. 12 exchanges participated in the review audit with the aim to rule out unscrupulous activities like lack of transparency, insider trading or money laundering. Some of the companies that underwent the review are Bithumb, OKCoin Korea, Huobi Korea, CoinOne, UPbit,Hanbit etc.

Jeon Ha-jin, a representative of the KBA, announced the audit at the Korea Federation of SMEs. The list of rules he laid out for the exchanges included a distinct separation of client capital and exchange capital, setting up of sophisticated client security and protection systems as well as rapid abnormal response times for transactions. In order to be eligible for participation in the review audit, companies must also have a minimum equity holding of 2 Billion Won or $1.7 million. The firms were also required to be regular in publishing their own finance and audit reports.

After the KBA made its findings public, the government of South Korea also moved to update its policy with regard with cryptocurrency. The South Korean Financial Supervisory Service is starting to create a framework that would allow for implementing the unified cryptocurrency regulations of the G20s. Earlier this year, in May, the Financial Supervisory Service stated that it would only be a matter of time till crypto-specific regulations were finalized to account for the increasing importance of digital currency as viable assets. Since this statement was made, the South Korean government has increasingly worked to speed up the process of finalizing virtual currency and blockchain rules.

The National Assembly of the country has been deliberating upon this issue since its session opened on 13th July and members are expected to present a bunch of draft bills on cryptocurrency regulations. Three members of the assembly are expected to submit bills on the same and Opposition member Song Hee-kyung is due to conduct a policy debate on 19th July on the security systems and practices of existing crypto exchanges.