South Korea to slap unregistered exchange bosses with jail time

South Korea will sentence cryptocurrency exchange bosses to prison if they fail to register with the nation’s financial regulator.

On Thursday, the National Assembly’s Amendment Subcommittee on Parliamentary Affairs made amendments to the legal framework so that digital asset exchanges are required to register with the Financial Services Commission (FSC).

According to local publication The News, the amendment looks to make exchanges compliant with anti-money laundering guidance from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

It also states that exchanges must hold a real-name virtual bank account as well as subaccounts for each and every user.

The notion of real-name bank accounts has attracted criticism in the past. In 2018, the FSC banned anonymous virtual accounts, a move which left just four exchanges standing – including Bithumb and UpBit.

South Korea has endured a turbulent relationship with cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology over the past two years.

A surge in financial crime led to a specialist task force being launched in order to combat the rising issue.

But there has also been a plethora of positivity surrounding crypto and blockchain, with an announcement in February stating that $1 billion would be poured into the industry.

South Korea has also been keeping a close eye on the progress of the Bitcoin ETF proposals in the United States, despite the fact that they have all been rejected so far.

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