Special Digital Currency Zones To Be Put Up In South Korea

Reports indicate that South Korea is considering launching a zone that will be dedicated to blockchain and virtual currency firms. The goal of the move is to have a central location from which blockchain and cryptocurrency companies can operate from and thus develop the ecosystem. According to Edaily, a South Korean publication, the cryptocurrency center will be located in Busen City.

If all goes according to plan projects and companies operating in the blockchain field will be incubated there. The zone will be named Crypto Beach. One of the European countries that has a zone dedicated to blockchain and cryptocurrency firms is Switzerland. In Switzerland the zone is located in Zug city and it is referred to as Crypto Valley.

According to Korea ICT Financial Convergence Association chairman, Oh Jung-geun, a conference event will be arranged with a view of discussing the matter further with the administration of Busen City. Currently Initial Coin Offerings are banned in South Korea and local firms have to go abroad to issue tokens.

This comes in the wake of the Korea Financial Intelligence Unit indicating that it is coming up with a regulatory framework for virtual currency exchanges. According to sources the regulatory rules are going to be similar to those that are applied to commercial banks. They will thus include anti-money laundering and know your client policies. 

Earlier in the month during a meeting of the Policy Advisory Council the director of the Korea Financial Intelligence Unit, Kim Geun-ik called for stricter policies and regulations with regards to terror financing and money laundering for commercial banks as well as other financial institutions.

Additionally the Korea Financial Intelligence Unit indicated that it would follow the lead of big cryptocurrency economies such as Japan and the United States in establishing a process of verification that is more rigorous with regards to large-scale transactions. According to Korea Financial Intelligence Unit the existing know your client and anti-money laundering policies for large financial institutions and retail investors are lenient. Korea Financial Intelligence Unit thus plans to bring the digital currency industry under the know your client and anti-money laundering policies.