S.Korea to hold emergency meeting on cryptocurrencies, measures expected Friday (updated)
13/12/2017 01:36
(Adds background, share prices)
* S.Korea to announce measures on virtual currencies on
Friday
-c.bank official
* S.Korea govt under pressure to regulate virtual currency
trading
By Cynthia Kim and Dahee Kim
SEOUL, Dec 13 (Reuters) - South Korea's government has
called an emergency meeting to discuss the trading of
cryptocurrencies, and measures on the market will be announced
on Friday, a central bank official said on Wednesday.
The official declined to give further details, but the
announcement underscores how global regulators are grappling
with the frenzy over cryptocurrencies, just days after the
launch of the world's first bitcoin futures.
Bitcoin-related shares slumped in early trade. Vidente Co
Ltd 121800.KQ and Omnitel Inc 057680.KQ , which hold stakes
of South Korea's biggest bitcoin exchange Bithumb, fell 8.4
percent and 4.9 percent, respectively. Bitcoin mining-related
company JCH Systems Inc 033320.KQ shares dropped 4.2 percent.
South Korean policymakers are facing a growing chorus of
calls to regulate the market as sharp volatilities in virtual
currency trading such as bitcoin BTC=BTSP has created a new
tribe of traders called "bitcoin zombies." urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N1OC3CO
Earlier on Wednesday, Australia's central bank governor said
the fascination with virtual currencies feels more like a
"speculative mania." urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N1OC5KK
The comments come days after his New Zealand counterpart
said bitcoin appeared to be a "classic case" of a bubble and
that its future was in doubt.
As bitcoin notched more than 15-fold increase in value this
year, Prime minister Lee Nak-yeon in November said he is worried
about students jumping into the frenzy, and called on the
government to take action as "some serious pathological
phenomenon" could arise if left unchecked.
The finance minister said on Monday that ministries are in
talks to decide whether such trading should be regulated, while
the chief of the financial regulator said some Justice Ministry
officials are calling for an outright ban on cryptocurrency
trading. No decisions have yet been made, however, on regulating
the market.
South Korea currently bans all financial institutions from
dealing with virtual currencies.
But the country is among the world's biggest bitcoin markets
and is home to the world's most active virtual currency
exchange, Bithumb.
Bitcoin BTC=BTSP is trading at $16,850 on the
Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange on Wednesday, near is liftime
high of $17,428 reached on Tuesday.
(Reporting by Dahee Kim, Cynthia Kim; Editing by Kim Coghill &
Shri Navaratnam)
((Cynthia.Kim@thomsonreuters.com; 822 3704 5655; Reuters
Messaging: cynthia.kim.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))
Keywords: MARKETS BITCOIN/SOUTHKOREA