South Korea will Make Final Decision of ICO Approval in November
According to a top-level official, Hong Nam-ki, the South Korean government is planning to make a decision on initial coin offerings (ICOs) in November.
During the National Assembly’s annual audit on government actions the head of the office for government policy coordinator, Hong Nam-ki said that South Korean regulators are reviewing the matter of ICOs, whether to allow them or not in the country again.
In September last year, South Korea prohibited domestic companies and startups from participating in initial coin offerings. In a meeting, South Korean market watchdog, Financial Services Commission (FSC) said that it will prohibit all forms of blockchain funding methods regardless of technical terminology, while margin trading of virtual currencies will also be illegal following the ruling. FSC implemented the ban because it thinks that ICOs are over speculative and constitute a violation of the capital market law. However, Hong Nam-ki said that some crypto related projects continued selling tokens to domestic residents by registering their business overseas.
In May this year, lawmakers from the National Assembly, the legislative arm of South Korea pushed for the removal of domestic ICO ban. Last month, the Financial Services Commission investigated token sale with a questionnaire seeking information on extensive project details. The investigation was a part of its effort to review the ICO ban.
According to Hong Nam-ki, since September the FSC is conducting surveys on Initial Coin Offerings. He said that “we are going to form the position of the South Korean government in November based on the results of the investigation at the end of October.”
Jeon Haecheol, a lawmaker from the ruling Democratic Party who supports ICO and thinks that the government must lift the ICO ban said that “if we waste time, the blockchain industry could face huge difficulties. We need to look at very realistic and specific ways to nurture the blockchain industry, and I think permitting ICO is one of them.”
In response the chairman of FSC, Choi Jong-gu said that “Many people say ICO should be allowed, but ICO’s uncertainty remains, and the damage is too serious and obvious.”