South Korea strengthens crypto regulation with LEI adoption and crime unit

The decision was driven by the country's concern over illicit activities in the crypto market and the desire to safeguard investors.

South Korea has established an interagency investigation unit to combat cryptocurrency crimes, aiming to address the rise in illicit activities in the market and the need for investor protection, according to a July 26 report.

Concurrently, the Korea Securities Depository announced a business agreement with Code, a company specializing in travel rules, in Seoul to encourage the issuance and usage of LEI (Legal Entity Identifier) in the virtual asset market.

According to an earlier report by local news media, Yonhap News, The Seoul Southern District Prosecutors Office will establish a joint virtual asset crime investigation unit called the Joint Investigation Centre for Crypto Crimes. The unit comprises 30 investigators from seven government agencies and bodies. These include the prosecution, Financial Supervisory Service, National Tax Service and Korea Customs Service, among others.

 A separate report from FNNews cited an official statement from Prosecutor General Lee Won-Seok,

"The virtual asset crime syndicate should help the initial virtual asset market not shrink and eliminate risks to stably settle in place."

The unit's primary focus is on investigating market players involved in issuing or distributing cryptocurrency to identify irregular trading activities and probe associated criminal activities, the reports sai. Additionally, it will expedite the investigative process for crypto-related criminal cases, covering detection, Analysis and handling.

The launch coincides with the passing of South Korea's first-of-its-kind legislation at the National Assembly, designed to safeguard crypto investors. The new law introduces penalties, including prison sentences and fines, for individuals engaged in unfair trading practices concerning virtual assets, the utilization of undisclosed information, market price manipulation and illicit transactions.

Related: South Korea to ask firms to disclose crypto holdings starting 2024

According to a local news report by Decenter, The LEI introduced by Korea Securities Depository and CODE, is a standardized ID given to corporations worldwide participating in financial transactions. It was introduced for the efficient management of financial transaction information after the 2008 financial crisis.

The Decenter report states that Code's agreement promotes LEI issuance among virtual asset operators. They aim to support businesses with LEIs in reporting and supervising due diligence, both inter-business and for financial institutions and regulatory authorities. Additionally, they plan to comply with the EU's Transfer of Funds Regulation (TFR).

Koh Chang-seop, Head of the Securities Settlement Division at Korea Securities Depository, reportedly said that starting in December, LEI will replace Foreign Investment Registration Certificate (IRC) for enhanced transparency.

Magazine: Korea crypto contagion: Asia Express

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Barry Silbert deletes old tweets amid GBTC selloff

Under-fire Digital Currency Group founder Barry Silbert has apparently deleted a raft of his old tweets . According to his X (formerly Twitter) account, Silbert signed up in October 2011, however, at the time of writing, his timeline shows no tweets or replies older than January 5 this year. Luckily for die-hard Silbert fans, X user Pledditor has screenshotted some of his “greatest hits.” Looks like @BarrySilbert has deleted all his old tweets The good news? I have screenshotted some of his greatest hits pic.twitter.com/GLWPbCf5mN — Pledditor #FixTheFilters (@Pledditor) January 15, 2024 Read more: Former DCG advisor Larry Summers on list of Jeffrey Epstein’s ‘Harvard friends’ Among the messages saved by Pledditor is a classic in which Silbert brands himself a “ complete and total professional failure ,” and one in which he advises Dogecoin holders to convert it to bitcoin. It’s not clear what prompted Silbert’s Social Media cull but he’s currently taking Social Media ...
Read more

Trader Issues Warning on Solana Rival That’s Up 247% in One Month, Updates Outlook on LDO and One Other Altcoin

Image
A widely followed crypto strategist warns that a Solana (SOL) competitor that’s up more than 3x in the last 30 days is flashing signals that it may have printed a short-term top. The pseudonymous analyst known as Altcoin Sherpa tells his 205,700 followers on the social media platform X that while layer-1 blockchain Sei (SEI) is still in an uptrend, it starting to show signs of bullish exhaustion. “Why it looks good: -consolidation and highly bullish high time frame market structure -still bullish on all time frames -EMAs (exponential moving averages) all catching up + other alts looking strong Why it doesn’t: -could be an exhaustion pump here and last big move up -could be rotation from others (SOL/SEI/etc/) to ETH season also known as ARB/LDO/OP -dying volume/some signs of distribution here.”  Source: Altcoin Sherpa/X At time of writing, SEI is trading for $0.785, up over 247% from its 30-day low of $0.226. The trader is also keep...
Read more

Nuant becomes a member of the OpenWealth Association

On January 18, Nuant joined the OpenWealth Association, contributing to advancing digital assets risk management within Swiss banking, WealthTech, and traditional finance, per the information shared with Finbold. In doing so, Nuant recently joined traditional finance entities such as Credit Suisse, LGT, VP Bank, and WealthTech firms like Assetmax and InvestSuite. This strategic partnership represents a noteworthy progression in crypto investment risk management within Switzerland’s financial sector. The OpenWealth Association aims to establish, uphold, and implement open Application Programming Interface (API) standards within the global wealth management community. This commitment aims to facilitate seamless financial data exchange among institutions. Nuant as representative of the CeDeFi sector Cryptocurrency Anthony Scaramucci says Bitcoin to skyrocket to $170,000 by 2025 Cryptocurrency Donald Trump says he’ll ‘never allow a CBDC’ if elec...
Read more