South Korea Postpones the Ban on Cryptocurrency Trade

On January 11, Justice Minister Park Sang-ki said that the government was preparing a bill to ban trading of the virtual currency on domestic exchanges. The news sent Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency prices plummeting as the nation’s police and tax authorities raided local exchanges to investigate allegations of tax evasion.
But the recent development from South Korean officials have confirmed that such bill has not passed and decision to bring the bill forward have been postponed. Government agencies were still in talks to decide how to regulate the market, raising hopes that ban fears may have been overblown.

The government’s tough decision triggered a selloff of the cyrptocurrency on both local and offshore exchanges. But for now traders are in peace as the final decision has been delayed and it may take ages till any further development comes forward. By Thursday afternoon, the Justice Ministry’s announcement had prompted more than 55,000 South Koreans to join a petition asking the presidential Blue House to halt the crackdown on the virtual currency, making the Blue House website intermittently unavailable due to heavy traffic, the website showed.

Prices have been plummeting and shares have been dropped over 30 percent globally. Prices of Major coins; Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Ripple have been lowest for a while and nearly anyone can purchase them with just a bit of cash. There are many around the world besides South Korea who have not yet taken part in digital currencies and prices are expected to go up once everyone is familiar with digital currencies. For now, relief is among investors in South Korea.