The government of South Korea was reluctant to regulate bitcoin and companies just 6 months ago. Now it seems that things are starting to change.
Teenagers and middle-aged investors in South Korea are participating in cryptocurrency trading, investing in bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash and a wide range of cryptocurrencies and assets. It is a novelty in this thriving market.
Now the Government is moving to regulate Bitcoin. At the beginning of 2017, the government of South Korea, the local financial authorities and the ministry of strategy and finance remained neutral to the bitcoin and declined to regulate the space because any type of regulation would grant legitimacy to the cryptocurrency market. That is what they believed for that moment.
The South Korean government was reluctant to regulate bitcoin and the companies just 6 months ago because it believed that the imposition of strict regulatory frameworks and policies would further drive the financial market and the general consumer of South Korea in the bitcoin market. It is a position that begins to change.
Since the South Korean Prime Minister Lee Nak-Yeon's public statement in early November on his concerns about teenagers and students entering the cryptocurrency trade, the South Korean government formed an operational force comprised of Korea's Ministry of Strategy and Finance. del Sur, Financial Services Commission. Ministry of Justice, Fair Trade Commission and Financial Supervision Commission to create regulations around the cryptocurrency market.
In this regard, early today, on December 13, South Korea's main cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb said that the imposition of regulations in the cryptocurrency market in South Korea would legitimize and validate the industry, given the rapid increase in demand of bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies by local investors in the market.
Bithumb also reported to the Reuters media. "An appropriate set of regulations will feed the market more (virtual currency), and we would welcome it."
South Korean cryptocurrency trading platforms such as Bithumb, Korbit and Coinone, which have a daily trading volume greater than KOSDAQ, South Korea's main stock market, are already equipped with so-called systems; Know Your Customer (KYC) well structured and Anti-Money Laundering (AML).
As is known, the rigorous process of verification and approval of the cryptocurrency trade accounts by the three exchanges mentioned above is well recognized. Exchanges require traders and investors to submit a wide range of documents, such as government issued IDs, proof of income, bank account information and personal interviews.
Therefore, the question arises, Why is government regulation necessary? Middle school to high school students, college students, middle-aged investors and grandparents are investing in bitcoins. As Isaac Chung, a college student who became a bitcoin enthusiast, told CNN Tech: "First, it was just technology people. Now, literally, everyone is interested in bitcoin. " The awareness of the meaning of this cryptocurrency has already been taken.
In an interview with Nathaniel Poppers of the New York Times, Tony Lyu, co-founder and CEO of Korbit, the third largest market in the cryptocurrency market in South Korea that was recently acquired for a value of $ 140 million, emphasized that the financial sector South Korea tends to overheat quickly, as investors move desperately to follow the recent trend. What is to keep buying these crypto.
"The word simply spreads very fast in Korea," said Lyu. "Once people invest, they want everyone else to join the party. There has been this huge, almost community movement, around this. "
In South Korea, literally, investors of all ages are beginning to invest in bitcoins and the cryptocurrency market, and the demand for cryptocurrencies has reached a point where the government considers the regulations for cryptocurrencies and investors necessary. .
In summary, global trends are evident, cryptocurrencies are arousing great interest, countries with a medium level in terms of purchasing power accept it, countries with high inflation problems embrace it as a means of investment for the protection of erosion of the assets of the family, then new ways of seeing this great revolutionary movement of finance will come, when other countries that observe with suspicion and if they change their minds it is possible that the blockchain-bitcoin technology occupies a prominent place in the democratization of the riches