The South Korean Finance Ministry said last night that the government was not planning to close digital currency trading platforms.
Seoul clarifies its position
South Korea Bitcoin lawAfter weeks of confusion for South Korean investors, who feared that the government would take a similar path to that taken by Beijing last year, the country's finance minister said last night that the authorities were not planning to prevent citizens from trading digital assets .
It was the Reuters news agency that reported a few hours ago the remarks made by Kim Dong-yeon , the South Korean Ministry of Finance. Here is what he said:
"There is no intention to forbid [the markets] crypto-currencies, nor to prevent them from operating".
Rather than prohibiting trading platforms, the authorities would like to regulate them better , in order to promote the safety of savers. What probably lessen the fears that persisted around a possible decision of Seoul to close these platforms:
Relieved investors
South KoreaBeyond the relief that it is likely to provide many South Korean traders, this statement comes to bring greater clarity to the intentions of the government - after recent contradictory statements by some of its representatives
The Minister of Justice said in early January that he wanted to ban the crypto-currency trading platforms, angering many investors.
The spokesman for the Office for Government Policy Coordination had disapproved of it a few days later. He indicated, however, that such a proposal should be "discussed and modified" by the "task force" that had been put in place to develop a regulatory framework around this activity.
In an interview with a local radio station two weeks ago, the president of the competition authority had ruled out the possibility of a ban , saying that the government was at risk of being over-stretched with the law if it decided to impose such a measure.
Kim Sang-Joo , chairman of the Fair Trade Commission , said :
"The closure of these platforms is not, realistically, possible. If we rely on the laws that govern electronic commerce, the government does not have the power to close the cryptocurrency trading platforms. "
For several observers, this news is added to the list of many factors that would drive optimism - even if the fears related to the company Tether Limited were revived yesterday by a published article of Bloomberg News
