South Korea Says No Plans to Ban Cryptocurrency Exchanges

The comment by Kim Dong-yeonon Wednesday comes as traders at home and around the world have been spooked by conflicting comments from government officials in South Korea, a major hub for cryptocurrency trade, that Seoul was planning to ban local digital coin exchanges.

"There is no intention to ban or suppress cryptocurrency (market)," Kim said, adding the government's immediate task is to regulate exchanges.

Read: Korean Cryptocurrency Exchange to File for Bankruptcy

Reinforcing Seoul's intent to tighten the screws on a market widely seen as opaque and risky by global policymakers, the country's customs earlier on Wednesday announced it had uncovered illegal cryptocurrency foreign exchange trading worth nearly $600 million.

"Customs service has been closely looking at illegal foreign exchange trading using cryptocurrency as part of the government’s task force," it said.

South Korea has been at the forefront of pushing for broad regulatory oversight of cryptocurrency trading as many locals, including students and housewives, jumped into a frenzied market despite warnings from policymakers around the world of a bubble.

Read: South Korea Plans to Ban Cryptocurrency Trading

Seoul previously said that it is considering shutting down local cryptocurrency exchanges, which threw the market into turmoil and hammered bitcoin prices. Officials later clarified that an outright ban is only one of the steps being considered, and a final decision was yet to be made.

REUTERS