Cross-Party South Korean Lawmaker Group Urges for More Leniency in Crypto Regulation

The regulation of cryptocurrency is evolving around the world, but one of the more stringent places has been South Korea.

In fact, their regulations have been deemed so strict that a cross-party group, made up of lawmakers in South Korea, have even asked the government to ease up on the regulation for both blockchain technology and cryptocurrency, according to the Korea Herald in an article yesterday.

The lawmakers believe that the current regulations that are damaging to the development and the growth that the industry could have in the country. Furthermore, the lawmakers believe that the Financial Services Commission has been rather conservative in the easing of regulations so far.

During the 2019 Deconomy Conference at the National Assembly on Friday, Rep. Min Byung-doo gave a speech, stating that crypto and blockchain are not subject to a move that would reduce the regulations. However, Byung-doo added that it is time to ease the regulations “according to needs.” The representative also plans to address that matter with the Moon Jae-in administration.

Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum, also showed up at the National Assembly, following the same path of the bipartisan calls for lifting the counter-productive bans in favor of ones that promote development and innovation.

Fxstreet, a financial news outlet, says that Buterin argued against the Korean government, pointing out that there cannot be a prohibition of crypto assets while they try to promote blockchain technology because they go hand in hand.

Song Hee-kyong, a representative of the Liberty Korea Party and co-president of the 4th Industry Forum of the National Assembly, suggested changes to the current framework to promote blockchain technology. The Korea Herald added that Song said that the “lack of systemic support” is an issue that customers grapple with and that the way that the government believes that they are promoting blockchain tech is “nothing but talk.”

In September last year, a ban was imposed on initial coin offerings (ICOs) by the South Korean government. At the time, they said that raising funds in this manner was like gambling. Though the FSC was debating on the ban this year, they ultimately chose to keep the ICO ban by January.

In light of these concerns for blockchain tech and cryptocurrency, the government plans to increase the 2019 budget for blockchain. Still, cryptocurrency appears to have no changes planned for their regulations or financing.