South Korea Looking Forward To Better Cryptocurrency

By Dmitriy

It is believed that after the U.S. and Japan, South Korea is the world’s largest market for cryptocurrencies. South Korea has less population than Arizona and California added population but it has too much involvement in the numbers of cryptocurrency to a large extent that on the worldwide level its number dictates. It is estimated by the association of Blockchain industry that South Korea does more than a dozen exchanges of cryptocurrency including Korbut, Bithumb and Coinone.  

Some of the biggest corporations have invested in cryptocurrencies in South Korea, some of the examples are Samsung, biggest conglomerate in world and Nexon, biggest video games developers.  

Japan and South Korea are technically high societies which have always embraced the new technologies. Also, both the societies are low economic growth and saving rates are relatively high. The regulator said on Tuesday that it hopes to see South Korea – which has become a hub for cryptocurrency trade – normalize the virtual coin business in a self-regulatory environment. South Korea won has third position globally in terms of cryptocurrency market size, which tends to improve the country GDP which is impressive and it comes under third of Japan’s.

Many South Koreans are obsessed with cryptocurrencies. The country’s lawmakers? Not so much.

1. Why are South Koreans so keen on cryptocurrencies?

In South Korea, many individual investors have an attraction for financial wagers who are supercharged. No matter what is the reason but if the central bank has to ask their staff to not to trade the cryptocurrencies than even this will happen particularly in the working hours.  

2. How big is South Korea as a crypto-trading centre?

It punches above its weight. Among traditional currencies, only the U.S. dollar was used more than the Korean won to trade the major cryptocurrencies as of Jan. 11. The won accounted for more than 10 percent of trades in Bitcoin for much of the second half of 2017. It was the No. 1 currency for transactions in Ethereum — the second-largest digital token by market value — until late in the year. The role of won recently has been declined as there is tough taking started by regulators.

3. What is the South Korean government doing?

All measures are taken by the authorities to be safe from laundering of money and other illegal activities, by forming a broader policy formulation.

4. What are South Korean officials worried about?

Mainly for money laundering, tax evasion and excessive speculation. Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon has even gone as far as to say that cryptocurrencies might corrupt the nation’s youth.

5. Won’t investors get around restrictions?

“There are always underground exchanges” and over-the-counter platforms, he said. “They’ll probably convert their money into bitcoin there, and then start trading offshore.”

South Korea had already passed China in trading volume. The government announced further regulatory plans to ban anonymous cryptocurrency trading in order to control cryptocurrency speculation. Then news of a complete cryptocurrency ban arose again after a statement by the Ministry of Justice, followed almost immediately by a retraction from the office of the South Korean president. The authorities of financial department also had requested for Know Your Customer i.e. KYC for the exchanges of the cryptocurrency and also to overhaul the Anti money laundering systems i.e. AML.