South Korea has been busy revising its cryptocurrency regulations. The regulators plan to ease the rules on crypto assets in line with G20 policies. While a new crypto classification system has been created, another government agency is conducting an on-site inspection of crypto exchanges following multiple hacks. In addition, the Bank of Korea has released a report with its view on using crypto as a means of payment.
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Policy Easing
South Korea has been actively revising and updating its regulations for cryptocurrencies. The Korea Times reported last week that the country’s top financial regulator, the Financial Services Commission (FSC), has revised “its guidelines relating to ‘all activities’ of Korea’s leading cryptocurrency exchange operators.”
Furthermore, “financial regulators plan to ease rules on crypto-based assets in line with policies initiated by G20 nations to establish unified regulations,” the publication detailed.
However, an FSC official told the news outlet that “Any major reversal in policies is unlikely.” Specifically, the policy change will not affect the way cryptocurrencies are classified for regulatory purposes. “The administration earlier classified cryptocurrencies as ‘non-financial products’ due to their speculative nature,” the news outlet conveyed, emphasizing:
The FSC and FSS [Financial Supervisory Service] will not change the government’s stance on crypto or digital assets as it’s difficult to value them as ‘financial assets’.
New Crypto Classification System
The South Korean Ministry of Strategy and Finance’s Statistics Korea, responsible for statistics in the country, has created a classification system for cryptocurrency operators and other blockchain-related entities.
Sedaily explained that Statistics Korea has been gathering comments on the new classification system, which will be reviewed by the National Statistical Commission Policy Subcommittee on July 11. The official results will be
