South Korea won’t regulate bitcoin trading

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In remarks made to journalists today, the head of the Financial Supervision Service (FSS), Choe Heung-sik, said that, since his agency does not view cryptocurrencies as a "legitimate currency", the FSS does not intend to monitor the digital assets trading.

According to the report of the Korea Times, Choe added that the South Korean government believes that cryptocurrencies are used in speculation, and not as payment instruments. As a result, the observer believes that cryptocurrencies are not financial products and nor is trading them a financial service.

He said that observation would occur only after the legal recognition of digital tokens as a legitimate currency.

The FSS head’s comments come amid growing popularity of cryptocurrency trading in South Korea, and perhaps this is due to the recent shutdown of the large national exchange Bithumb, which recently experienced a technical malfunction, which reportedly lost traders in billions of won.