South Korean government introduces stricter regulations for crypto businesses. According to Cointelegraph, the Specific Financial Transaction Act will impact the operations of all virtual asset service providers (VASPs). This includes cryptocurrency exchanges, providers of wallet services, and crypto asset managers and custodians.
According to CoinJournal, crypto exchanges must comply with anti-money laundering standards to avoid penalties. Those standards will come into effect on April 20. Otherwise, providers could expect penalties between 30 million won (around $26,000) and 100 million won (around $88,000), the source says.
To prevent money laundering, the government will require all crypto exchanges to cooperate with banks. This is to ensure that clients trade using accounts under their real names, writes Cointelegraph. However, meeting the new compliance regulations could be very costly. In addition, using the services of third parties could cause privacy concerns.
Following the introduction of the new regulations, which took effect today, March 25, crypto exchange OKEx decided to discontinue its operations in South Korea. According to Forkast News, its users must withdraw their funds from the exchange by April 7 to prevent themselves from losing their holdings.
Earlier this month, the National Tax Service (NTS) caught 2,416 individuals who were evading paying taxes by hiding their income in cryptocurrency. The total earnings not reported reached over 36 billion won (more than $32 million).
