Series of reports from Reuters and CNBC say that South Korea plans to ban cryptocurrency exchange markets. The rumor that South Korean government wants to close the local cryptocurrency markets caused in decrease of the value of, for example Bitcoin.
What is going on?
The South Korean government has never published statement that says they plan to ban any cryptocurrency. However, they released a document that says, they will close exchanges involved in money laundering or other suspicious activities. The government already established a law which prevents foreign investors from trading on local exchanges and there is no need to panic about that.
South Korean ministers want to put Bitcoinmania under control and make it safe for investors. At the beginning of December, a spokesman of a cryptocurrency task force formed by the South Korean Ministry of Strategy and Finance, stated that the South Korean government will follow the regulatory set by leading markets like Japan or the US.
CoinMarketCap decision
Recently (08.01.2018) CoinMarketCap deleted the Korean exchanges from its charts to remove divergence between Korea and the rest of the world, what made the banning rumors even more likely to be true.
CoinMarketCap removed exchanges like Bithumb (the second largest exchange market regarding trading volume) Coinone and Korbit.
The most traded cryptocurrency in South Korea is Ripple. After CoinMarketCap decision, its price and market value went down immediately. With new charts, traders panic sold their XRP’s, as CoinMarketCap twitter follower reported.
No reasons to overreact
As we wrote earlier, there are a lot of changes that happen to cryptocurrencies, like Visa in Europe. There is a lot of changes that will come, and even more things to reevaluate in cryptocurrencies. It is normal that governments want to make laws and limitations when it comes to money. We, as investors, miners, or tech geeks, should observe, control and react if needed. For now, i think that we shouldn’t overreact.
What do you think