South Korea Introduces New Rules for Cryptocurrency to Tackle Money Laundering

In the event of the sudden surge in the popularity of cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, many countries have started to come out with proper rules and regulatory measures in this regard and South Korea is the latest to join the bandwagon. South Korea has come out with regulatory measures through new cryptocurrency rules that came into effect since Tuesday. It definitely comes across as a positive step that validates the importance of cryptocurrency providing it the much needed legal form.

On Tuesday, the South Korea’s Financial Services Commission confirmed that it had been working on related to it since the beginning of this month. The regulator had published a document saying that it would allow trading cryptocurrencies from that of real name bank accounts from January 30. The rules would enable banks to comply with the rules set up in the Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti Money Laundering (AML) as well.

The document further mentioned that the initiative taken is to “reduce room for cryptocurrency transactions to be exploited for illegal activities, such as crimes, money laundering and tax evasion.”

Sources from South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb says that the whole process has turned out to be smooth and that there is nothing that has affected transaction of coin. The new rules set out by South Korea are a positive step that is beneficial in the long run.

Julian Hosp, co-founder and president of cryptocurrency start-up TenX, told CNBC, “I think it’s the start of a crackdown on anonymity and the illegal use cases that some cryptocurrencies might have. He further added, “If, afterwards, investors and companies have more legal security working in the ecosystem, it’s going to have some short-term downsides, but long term, it’s going to have a really, really big boost.”