Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), South Korea’s financial regulator, is not planning to regulate digital currencies such as bitcoin, FSS Governor said recently, as reported by The Korea Times.
According to the government, digital currencies do not function as a payment tool and are rather speculative objects, FSS Governor Choe Heung-sik told reporters. In line with this viewpoint, the regulator does not consider cryptocurrencies and related activities as falling under the scope of financial products or services.
“Though we are monitoring the practice of cryptocurrency trading, we don’t have plans right now to directly superwise exchanges. Supervision will come only after the legal recognition of digital tokens as a legitimate currency,” Heung-sik said.
The comments come after reports suggested that South Korean bitcoin exchange Bithumb was reportedly hacked earlier this year, in which billions of won were stolen. The Korea Times said that over 1,500 people have joined a joint suit against the company.
In October, the beta version of a new cryptocurrency exchange ‘Upbit’ was rolled out in South Korea. The platform is expected to support a wide range of cryptocurrencies, over 100 tokens in total.
