A New Bill Asks South Korean Public Officials to Disclose Their Crypto Investments

Regulatory measures taken by the South Korean government has remained as one of the hottest topics of debate and discussion in the cryptocurrency markets over the past two weeks. Earlier reports in the last week suggested that South Korea is preparing a bill for banning trading of cryptocurrencies in the country owing to the massive inrush of investors to purchase cryptocurrencies.

This report caused a major unrest in the speedily surging crypto markets, following which a massive correction hit the entire market and a free fall across all cryptocurrencies was observed. This news in the market led to a huge uproar within South Korea’s investor community owing to which the government was soon forced to soften its stand and announce that it has yet not finalized the decision about any such possibility of a crypto-trading-ban in the country.

As the story unfolded, a massive controversy broke out within the government with alleged charges of market manipulation and insider trading on the officials. In order to ensure and maintain transparency regarding the regulatory process, the government has now introduced a bill which asks public officials to disclose their crypto investments.

The local media reported that Chung Dong-yong, a member of the South Korean National Assembly’s Administrative and Security Committee, has introduced a bill which explains that “the current Public Service Ethics law excludes cryptocurrency, which has recently emerged as a means of property proliferation.”

Under the Public Service Ethics Act, the bill asks officials to declare their cryptocurrency holdings if they are worth more than 10 million won which is approximately above $9350 USD. In case the officials are found providing false information regarding their investments, Chung has proposed a disciplinary action and a penalty.

The Hankyoreh then quoted him saying: “As the government is taking the lead in cryptocurrency regulation, the public sector should take the lead in transparently disclosing the property proliferation through cryptocurrency.”

Chung was further quoted asserting “We need to investigate whether we have taken unfair profits and disclose the status of our assets.”

South Korea’s internal government departments have been seen disagreeing with each other over the past month over crypto regulatory measures. Initially, the Ministry of Justice announced the possibility of a ban on trading activities. The outcome was that a huge number of investors signed petitions concerning crypto regulations and the government’s stand on this.

Before things could get from bad to worse, the Korean financials regulators were found distancing themselves from this stand of the Ministry of Justice.

At this point in time, there is no certainty about what could be the next move by the South Korean government as so the markets are seen to continue with a bearish sentiment, overall.