South Korean National Assembly Holds First Crypto Debate with Local Crypto Exchanges

IT media outlet ZdNet from Korea reports that South Korean representative body, the National Assembly, held a crypto regulation debate among the major local cryptocurrency exchanges on Monday, 10th December 2018.

This debate by South Korea’s National Assembly along with several members of the Congress will be the first official debate in the country on crypto assets which also involved high profile government officials.

The topics of the debate were proposed by seven crypto exchanges such as Bithumb, CobitCoin, Coinone, Upbit, Gopax, Coinplug, and Hanbitco, along with executives of digital asset trading platforms and over-the-counter (OTC) exchanges with members of the Congress.

It was expected that the debate would majorly revolve around transparency and efficiency of crypto exchanges along with establishing its importance. At the same time, establishing a practical regulatory framework was also expected to be an important subject matter for the debate.

The attendees on the debate were not only the crypto companies or exchanges, but the debate was also attended by politicians, such as Democratic Party member Kim Byung-wook and representatives for the Liberty Korea and Bareunmirae parties, both of which hold a significant number of seats in the National Assembly. A representative from the Financial Services Commission (FSC), which is considered as the country’s financial watchdog was also present at the discussion.

ZDNet in its report said that Lee Seok-woo, CEO of Dunamu, a subsidiary of Kakao that operates Upbit, led the discussion that was attended by FSC members and the President of Gopax, among others. The major subject of the discussion was on Anti-Money Laundering (AML), customer interest protection and Know Your Customer (KYC) practices.

The next topic of debate in the National Assembly was on the FSC’s decision to allow banks to service crypto exchanges, as soon as they have adequate AML safeguards and apply KYC checks.

As per a recent report, the crypto industry in South Korea is growing at a consistent rate. In November, the Korean crypto exchanges overtook Maltese competitors in terms of average daily trade volume. As per the report, major Korean players produced over $1.4 billion daily.