South Korea’s government said on Thursday it plans to ban cryptocurrency trading, sending bitcoin prices plummeting and throwing the virtual coin market into turmoil as the nation’s police and tax authorities raided local exchanges on alleged tax evasion.
The clampdown in South Korea, a crucial source of global demand for cryptocurrency, came as policymakers around the world struggled to regulate an asset whose value has skyrocketed over the last year.
Justice minister Park Sang-ki said the government was preparing a bill to ban trading of the virtual currency on domestic exchanges.
“There are great concerns regarding virtual currencies and the justice ministry is basically preparing a bill to ban cryptocurrency trading through exchanges,” Park told a news conference, according to the ministry’s press office.
South Korea is the is one of the biggest market for cryptocurrencies especially Bitcoin and Ethereum. Bitcoin prices fell by almost 15% after the announcement. This news and Warren Buffet's predictions about the downfall of cryptos are bad signals for the market. If you are still interested in investing in the market, this is surely high time.