South Korea's financial regulator will ban raising money through all forms of virtual currencies.
The Initial Coin Offering (ICO) net is tightening around Asia. In a move that follows similar restrictions in China on initial coin offerings the Financial Services Commission in Seoul said all kinds of ICOs will be banned as trading of virtual currencies needs to be tightly controlled and monitored.
After a meeting with the finance ministry, the Bank of Korea and the National Tax Service, the regulator said in a statement, «Raising funds through ICOs seem to be on the rise globally, and our assessment is that ICOs are increasing in South Korea as well,»
Shared Concerns
Stern penalties will be issued on financial institutions and any parties involved in issuing of ICOs, the statement added, without elaborating further on the details of those penalties, according to another report from CNBC.
The decision comes on the back of similar announcements in the U.S. and China where sudden volumes of cryptocurrencies have sparked concerns. The financial regulators in Australia, Hong Kong Malaysia and Singapore have also waded in with their own concerns.
