Jung Ki-joon, the South Korean Cryptocurrency Regulator, was just found dead in his home. He was only 52 years old.
Ki-joon had been a key coordinator between different government agencies. More importantly, he was in charge of “devising measures against cryptocurrency speculation.”
Ki-joon allegedly passed away during his sleep from an apparent heart attack. However, an official cause of death has not been confirmed.
Inside sources told police that Ki-joon had been under extreme amounts of stress.
South Korea continues to struggle with finding a balance in crypto regulation. The rapidly growing cryptocurrency market has been a large source of uncertainty and doubt for the rest of the world.
Although they officially legalized cryptocurrency exchanges, they also banned anonymous exchanges. This undermined some of the primary privacy reasons why we use cryptocurrency.
"About 4.5% of all bitcoin transactions world-wide last year used the South Korean won, making it the most widely used fiat currency in bitcoin trading after the U.S. dollar, the Japanese yen and the euro," published CryptoCompare.
It comes as no surprise that conspiracy theories are springing up around the regulator's untimely death. Ki-joon leads the regulatory ban of a platform used for illegal activity, and is shortly thereafter found dead.