South Korea Government Beats Slow Retreat on Cryptocurrency Ban

After all the tension created in recent years by South Korean government actions against exchanges, we are now about to witness the most anti-climactic ending possible.

The South Korean government declared today it would back down on the proposed shutdown of cryptocurrency exchanges until doing its proper due diligence.

“The proposed shutdown of exchanges that the justice minister recently mentioned is one of the measures suggested by the justice ministry to curb speculation. A government-wide decision will be made in the future after sufficient consultation and coordination of opinions,” the Office for Government Policy Coordination said in a statement released to Yonhap News Agency.

The speculative craze prompted South Korean government officials to raid Coinone and Bithumb on suspicion of tax evasion.

The statement that sparked confusion and anger across the country and sent ripples through the Western media came courtesy of Justice Minister Park Sang-ki.

“There are great concerns regarding virtual currencies, and the justice ministry is basically preparing a bill to ban cryptocurrency trading through exchanges,” he said at a press conference four days ago.

Three days prior to the announcement by the minister, CoinMarketCap decided to remove South Korean exchanges from its listings. As a result, the entire cryptocurrency market capitalization listed on its site dropped by around $100 billion.

The removal of these listings had little to do with the legislative turmoil in the country. Rather, it was the liquidity issues South Korean exchanges had that prompted CoinMarketCap to ax them.

Although the Office for Government Policy Coordination may have rolled back the justice minister’s statement, this doesn’t mean that cryptocurrency exchanges in the country are in the clear.

Their shutdown is still in the cards although it is starting to look less likely with every passing day.