South Korea Softens Its Stand on Cryptocurrency Ban After a Huge Uproar
With a tremendous increase in the number of investors participating in the cryptocurrency mania, a lot has been going on in South Korea since the beginning of 2018 as the government officials and tax agencies are seen cracking-the-whip on local exchanges.
The Korean government since the beginning of its investigation has been sighting reasons of “tax evasion and money laundering” behind its stand of the crackdown. Yesterday’s announcement from the Ministry of Justice, about the possibility of a ban of cryptocurrency trading caused a lot of panic and fear in the crypto markets. This was soon followed by a huge sell-off as the overall cryptocurrency market is reportedly said to have corrected by almost $100 billion, before finally recovering back.
Earlier on Thursday, January 11, the Justice Minister - Park Sang-ki released a statement saying “The South Korean Ministry of Justice is considering the closure of cryptocurrency trading to bring cryptocurrency mania and speculation under control for investor protection.”
As reported by Reuters, this decision of a probable ban was taken after “enough discussions” with the Ministry of Strategy and Finance (MSF). However, when later in the day, as both these ministries were brought to attention on this matter through mainstream media, they soon released their stand saying that they have not agreed to the proposal. “We do not share the same views as the Ministry of Justice on a potential cryptocurrency exchange ban,” MSF said.
Moreover, later in the day, an official statement was issued from Korea’s Presidential Office stating that the decision on the ban is being reviewed and yet not finalized. The official statement, as reported by Yonhap news, read: “Justice Minister Park Sang-ki’s remarks regarding the shutdown of cryptocurrency exchanges is one of the measures that have been prepared by the Justice Ministry, but it is not a finalized decision and will be finalized through discussion and a coordination process with each government ministry.”
However, these proceedings by the Korean government has been not received quite well by South Korea’s tech-savvy investor community. South Korea has always remained at the forefront of technological revolution with other countries of the globe. The Korean government soon faced a backlash as nearly 100,000 South Korean citizens signed a petition asking the government to prevent the ban on cryptocurrency trading in the country.
Following this, the entire cryptocurrency task force of South Korea reviewed the situation on the ground and finally concluded that there will be no cryptocurrency ban in the country in short-term. Even Reuters had yesterday reported that for such a decision to be implemented, it might take several months and years. Reuters wrote: Once a bill is drafted, legislation for an outright ban of virtual coin trading will require a majority vote of the total 297 members of the National Assembly, a process that could take months or even years.”
Soon as the reports about the about the South Korean government softening its stand came out, a wave of optimism and positivity has yet again gripped the cryptocurrency market as we can see major digital currencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum and Ripple making sharp up moves with the markets adding $50 billion to its valuation today itself on Friday, January 12, 2018.