Tag Archives: south korea

The implosion of the South Korean stablecoin project Terra may have dented general sentiment towards the industry, but that has not stopped the second-largest city in the country from pursuing ambitious crypto and blockchain goals. Busan has announced a partnership with FTX to build blockchain-powered business solutions in the coming months. As part of the deal, Sam Bankman-Fried’s exchange will work with Busan city to assist in the development of Busan Digital Asset Exchange...

Yong-beom Kim – First Vice Minister of South Korea’s Ministry of Economy and Finance from 2019 to 2021 – will join the blockchain and digital technology research institute Hashed Open Research as its Chief Executive Officer. The entity aims to act as a bridge between local cryptocurrency experts and the government. According to a document shared with CryptoPotato, Yong-beom Kim’s main task as a top executive of Hashed Open Research will be to establish a constructive dialogue...

The Ministry of Strategy and Finance of the South Korean government has said that virtual asset airdrops are subject to gift tax as per existing tax laws. Gift tax has to be paid when free virtual assets with economic value are paid out, media reports said. Gift Tax on Airdrops Recently, the South Korean finance ministry was asked by a tax law interpretation inquiry to provide its interpretation of whether an airdrop is subject to gift tax or not. In its response, the...

South Korean securities companies have reportedly set their focus on the crypto industry and plan to set up digital asset exchanges in the first half of 2023. Such firms include Mirae Asset Securities and Samsung Securities. The domestic financial regulators have been quite strict with crypto-related entities in the past few years. Last year, prompted by the mandatory requirements that the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) enforced, over 60 trading venues halted their...

South Korean police are reportedly looking to freeze assets associated with the non-profit organization Luna Foundation Guard (LFG) following the eventful collapse of Terra (LUNA). According to South Korea’s national broadcaster Korean Broadcasting System (KBS), on Monday (May 23, 2022), the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency asked several exchanges in the country to prevent LFG from withdrawing funds. Although such platforms are not mandated by law to carry out the police...

Two leading South Korean cryptocurrency exchanges, UpBit and Bithumb, have issued a warning for Litecoin after the activation of MimbleWimble Extension Blocks (MWEB). Growing Concerns UpBit revealed terminating “transaction support for digital assets with technology that makes transmission records indistinguishable from the past” while pointing to Korea’s Act on the Reporting and Use of Specific Financial Transaction Information. Under this act, crypto exchanges in the...

South Korea’s National Tax Service has reportedly ordered Terraform Labs, its co-founder Do Kwon, and other executives to pay a 100 billion won ($78 million) fine for tax evasion penalties. The Genesis According to local reports, the tax agency first launched an investigation into Terraform Labs and its subsidiaries in June last year on suspicion of corporate and income tax evasion. The investigation found that two of the company’s subsidiaries were registered abroad in the...

The catastrophic failure of Terra’s algorithmic stablecoin, TerraUSD (UST), last week exacerbated the chaos in the crypto industry and accelerated plans to regulate the stablecoins market. Following the market meltdown, global financial regulators started proposing different legislations to regulate stablecoins better and prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future. UK to Legalize and Regulate Stablecoins Over the weekend, the United Kingdom Treasury revealed plans...

The new government of South Korea will reportedly finalize the regulatory framework on the local digital asset ecosystem next year and enforce it in 2024. The legislation will aim to incorporate cryptocurrencies like bitcoin into the country’s institutional system. In addition, the authorities have greenlighted the Bank of Korea’s efforts to launch a CBDC in 2023. South Korea Embracing Crypto Just two months after Yoon Seok-youl secured a victory in South Korea’s presidential...

South Korea arrested two citizens on the charge of stealing military secrets for a North Korean spy, who paid them with cryptocurrency. One of the two is a crypto exchange executive who has received $600,000 since working for the agent last year. South Korea is yet to catch the North Korean spy, who – the authorities believe – is operating overseas. Infiltrating South Korea’s Military Department According to South Korean police and prosecution officials, the head of the...