South Korean Authorities Slammed for Taking Crypto Regulation ‘Baby Steps’
South Korea’s financial regulators are taking “baby steps” while US counterparts forge ahead with rapid crypto regulation progress, a new report has claimed.
Per the South Korean media outlet News Tomato, domestic financial authorities are yet to “properly organize” their crypto arms. The outlet wrote:
“There is no organization dedicated to cryptoassets at the Financial Services Commission (FSC). And the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) is said to be at a very nascent level, with dedicated crypto units only formed this month.”
The report’s author noted that United States regulators, by contrast, are “fostering the cryptocurrency market.”
This is evinced by steps like Washington’s approval of Bitcoin spot ETFs earlier this month, the author explained.
By contrast, the approval has led domestic regulators to clamp down on South Korean firms offering crypto ETF access overseas.
And the author said that critical “voices” are now “calling for a new dedicated department to be established” at the FSC.
The media outlet quoted an FSC official as conceding that no such move was possible without approval from the Ministry of Public Administration and Security. The official said:
“We cannot make this decision arbitrarily. We are continuously making efforts [to create a new, crypto-specific organization]. But nothing concrete has yet been agreed upon.”
The FSS, meanwhile, launched two dedicated units crypto units on January 9: the Virtual Asset Supervision Bureau and the Virtual Asset Investigation Bureau.
The news outlet claimed that this move was a significant “first step.” But it criticized the regulator as being “somewhat late” to the crypto regulation party.
Prior to the launch of the new divisions, a team of FSS researchers provided
