Key takeaways:
- Reports from the local community state that the FSS of South Korea is working on laws to add to the Virtual Asset Users Protection Act completed earlier this year.
- Before the law’s enactment, the FSS head stated that new regulations must be available by January.
Reports from the local community state that the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) of South Korea is working on laws to add to the Virtual Asset Users Protection Act that was completed earlier this year.
Before the law’s enactment, the FSS head stated that new regulations must be available by January.
On October 17, the FSS was audited by the Political Affairs Committee of the South Korean National Assembly. During the audit, FSS head Lee Bok-hyeon addressed concerns raised by the public that South Koreans were losing money on cryptocurrency “burger coins,” which are local terms for foreign-issued cryptocurrencies that are traded in the country.
According to the South Korean press coverage of the audit, the FSS will define rules for listing procedures, internal controls, and the issuance and distribution of virtual assets. It will also create a “virtual asset market supervision and inspection system.”
The Digital Asset eXchange Association (DAXA), which is composed of regional cryptocurrency exchanges Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit, and Gopax, is reportedly in discussions with Lee about the upcoming legislation.
Lee claimed that there was insufficient regulatory specificity in the June-passed Act. Although the bill included criminal penalties for infractions, Lee felt it did not grant his agency enough power.
According to Lee, they will confer with DAXA if there is an actual act that constitutes staking or unfair disclosure that manipulates distribution volume. He asserted:
“There are related systems in place in the securities sector for various screenings related to the issuance market, but there are no related systems in place at DAXA or individual exchanges.”
The Joint Investigation Centre for Crypto Crimes is a collaborative virtual asset criminal investigation unit that South Korean law enforcement has declared ambitions to create. Thirty employees will work for it; they will be drawn from various government departments, such as the Korea Customs Service, National Tax Service, and FSS.
