South Korea may criminalize cryptocurrency market manipulation

The Financial Services Commission of South Korea (FSC) requires legislators to criminalize deliberate acts aimed at changing the price of cryptoassets.

FSC has asked the National Assembly of the Republic to introduce a clause on the criminal prosecution of persons manipulating the cryptocurrency market and carrying out insider trading into the legislation on cryptocurrency regulation.

According to the FSC recommendations, the minimum punishment for such persons could be one year in prison and fines three to five times higher than the illegally obtained profit. At the same time, for illegal profits exceeding 5 billion won ($ 4.2 million), the punishment could be five years in prison.

Earlier, the National Assembly instructed the Commission to prepare a comprehensive cryptocurrency industry bill within one month. Now, the law probably won’t be ready for the parliamentary meeting to be held on December 9, 2021.

Political Affairs Committee secretary and ruling party deputy Kim Byeong-wook noted that there is an urgent need to regulate the cryptocurrency market. In his opinion, first of all, it is necessary to protect investors:

“There has already been enough research and discussion of the law on virtual assets. Investor protection is the most important thing in the cryptocurrency market. ”

Earlier it was reported that South Korea may impose income tax on cryptocurrencies after the election of the president. At the same time, if earlier NFTs were excluded from the law on taxation of cryptocurrencies, now the vice-chairman of the FSC Doh Kyu San insists that collection tokens should also fall under the law.

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