New Head of FSS More Positive about Cryptos

According to the latest news reports, South Korea has a new governor of the country’s financial regulatory body, the Financial Supervisory Services (FSS). The new head of the watchdog agency, Yoon Suk-heun, will join office on May 8 – today. Yoon is known as a reformist and seems to have taken a welcome softer stance towards the cryptocurrency industry as a whole.

First News Conference Gives Hope

In his first news conference during his inauguration as head of the FSS, Yoon stated that the FSS was going to work towards better cryptocurrency regulation that would create the kind of financial system that would make cryptocurrencies and crypto-related products safer and more accessible.

He told reporters that there were positive aspects of the industry that needed to be acknowledged. The new FSS governor, however, did not go into detail regarding what regulatory changes that might be in the pipeline for domestic crypto exchanges. He simply stated that there were numerous issues that needed to be reviewed as well as addressed. He said that while they could resolve them, it would take time.

South Korean Regulatory Crackdowns

Since the last half of 2017, the South Korean government has come down hard on the crypto industry. The crypto mania that gripped the country from September 2017 onwards and peaked in December caused serious concern about the safety and stability of the industry. Additional concerns were raised about how easily people could use cryptocurrencies for criminal activities.

Thus, regulators cracked down on the domestic crypto exchanges from the end of 2017 onwards. It was mandated that real-name verification of all exchange customers would be compulsory from January 2018 onwards. At the same time, the country also banned South Koreans under the age of 18 as well as non-resident foreigners from trading in cryptocurrencies. The FSS has also been inspecting various cryptocurrency exchanges to ensure compliance with the country’ anti-money laundering laws.

This ban led a massive nose-dive in the trading volume of cryptocurrencies in the country. According to the VP of Bithumb, Lee Jeong-ah, trading fell from a daily volume of 4 trillion won to 400 billion won.

Hoping for Better Regulations

Crypto-exchange UpBit’s spokesperson stated that the industry was not against regulations – they were needed. However, this did not mean that an entire industry should be killed in the process. The spokesperson said they were hoping the new FSS governor would look at how the agency could offer solutions to help cryptocurrency trading, as well as blockchain technology, improve and make the industry more stable.