Invest in the cryptomonnaies is very widespread in South Korea, a country fascinated by new technologies (Photo Justin TALLIS. AFP)
The south Korean government has fired Thursday, a storm on the market of bitcoin and other virtual currency by announcing that Seoul is preparing to prohibit the exchange platforms, currencies, cryptographic, front to back.
The bitcoin has plunged 18% after the first announcement in south korea, before recovering thanks to the correction made subsequently by the authorities of the South. At about 11: 00, the bitcoin was however worth 13.422,57 dollars against 14.501, $ 52 Wednesday night.
“If the bubble bursts, this would have a devastating effect”, was first declared to the press the minister of Justice Park Sang-Ki after the failure of a series of measures intended to calm speculation on the currencies virtual currencies.
“The ministry is preparing a draft law to prohibit all of the exchanges based on the virtual currency in the halls of transactions.”
The authorities are “very concerned” by the popularity of the cryptomonnaies, he continued. They “want to close all of the exchange platforms of virtual currencies” in the country. “All of this began to look like the game and speculation,” added the minister.
Invest in the cryptomonnaies is very widespread in South Korea, a country fascinated by new technologies. The south-Korean bitcoins represent about 20% of world trade in the currency, which is about 10 times more than the weight of South Korea in the global economy.
The remarks of Mr. Park pushed the price of the bitcoin of 18% on the platform Bithumb, while ethereum, another virtual currency, which lost 23%.
And investors have flooded the website of the blue House, the presidential palace, e-mails and petition against the ban on exchange platforms.
The government has quickly backtracked.
The closure is “one of the measures envisaged by the ministry of Justice,” said the spokesman of the presidency, Yoon Young-Chan. “But the decision is not finalized.”
The cryptomonnaies have in the wake of the recovery of the bar but continued to register declining.
“We are closely monitoring the government’s decisions”, told AFP a representative of Bithumb, who is among the twenty-odd platforms of exchange in south korea.
The tax authorities carried out Wednesday a raid on the premises of Bithumb.
Also on Wednesday, the financial authorities have inspected six banks in south korea, offering accounts in virtual currency businesses.
Seoul has banned in December to its financial institutions from conducting transactions in virtual currency. Two weeks later, South Korea announced the ban of anonymous accounts in cryptomonnaie and the strengthening of the suppression of money laundering activities using these currencies.
In 2017, the price of bitcoin took off, after having started the year around $ 750, up to 19.500 dollars in December before you collapse in the international exchanges, according to the financial agency Bloomberg. He was running around over 13,600 dollars in trade in the afternoon on Thursday.
A responsible Service of financial supervision (FSS), the regulator of south korea, has explained that close exchange platforms cryptomonnaies would be a “very strong”, which would have the effect of stifling the transactions cryptomonnaies within the country.
