Bitcoin is now legal in South Korea, one of the countries with the largest crypto community in Asia. The South Korean National Assembly formally passed the "Law on Reporting and Use of Certain Financial Information" into law, and made digital currency trading and legal activities in the country, TheNewsAsia reported today. The legality of this Bitcoin requires all crypto exchanges and bitcoin trading places in the region to "comply with financial reporting requirements."
Previously, the South Korean government reportedly planned to impose a 20% tax on revenues from cryptocurrency transactions. This policy proposal emerged in 2019.
This development is evidence of proactive government involvement in the digital asset industry. Around the beginning of January, even the South Korean 4th Industrial Revolution Commission recommended that the country's financial institutions launch digital currency related services such as Bitcoin derivatives in the country.
According to the commission, as of May 2019 the daily trade of crypto assets reached more than 80 trillion won of around US $ 959.1 trillion. This amount is large enough that it is no longer possible to stop trading in crypto assets in this country.
If you can't fight it, you have to embrace it. Thus the South Korean Government must gradually allow institutional investors to deal with crypto assets and promote the over the counter (OTC) method.
South Korea's 4th Industrial Revolution Commission
South Korea's cryptocurrency regulations have evolved significantly since Democratic National Park Committee member Park Yong Jin came to power and began introducing taxation for crypto for the first time in 2017.
With Bitcoin already having legal status in South Korea, it will most likely affect the price of the crypto assets and increase the rate of cryptocurrency adoption in South Korea and other countries in Asia. Please note that Bitcoin is legal in several Asian countries, including Japan, India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Singapore and Thailand.
This only means that we are nearing in the future where we will be using digital assets as means of payment. With the South Korea action, it will surely boost the investors in crypto and the demand will surely increase especially if more people from South Korea will engage in crypto investment.
Upon the legalization, it will be good also if they will start to educate their people on how to use crypto currencies so the people will know how to invest their money and they will fall to the hands of the scammers. More and more countries are now embracing the crypto currencies, I am hoping other countries who are not yet fully open to crypto will follow soon.
