South Korea continues to reaffirm its grip on crypto regulations as the country’s regulator has ordered all of its officials to report their digital asset holdings.
Additionally, the nation’s Financial Minister said that South Korea will “inevitably” impose taxes on gains from virtual asset trading next year.
FSC Employees to Report Crypto Investments
The East Asian country has been discussing various cryptocurrency regulations for the past few years. Most recently, South Korea’s Financial Services Commission asked financial companies to monitor any dealings with digital assets between their users.
The nation’s watchdog has taken it a step further now, according to local coverage. The regulator’s Chairman, Eun Sung-Soo, has ordered all officials involved with cryptocurrency-related policies to file a report “on the volume of their virtual currency investments” by May 7th.
Some of the affected officials include those involved with drafting and implementing laws on digital currency usage, investigators of shady cryptocurrency transactions, and those responsible for reporting and managing exchanges.
The FSC’s Chairman has received severe backlash from crypto insiders based in South Korea for his rash approach. Locals launched an online petition calling for his resignation, and over 130,000 South Koreans had signed it as of now.
The situation escalated after Sung-Soo said cryptocurrencies have “no intrinsic value, are not a real currency.” Furthermore, he blamed adults for “leading young people who are going the wrong way. It’s too risky to trade them considering their high volatility in prices.”
Taxes on Crypto Are Inevitable
The country has also dabbled with what sorts of taxes it should impose on gains from cryptocurrency trading. The latest news on this matter came from South Korea’s Finance Minister – Hong Nam-Ki – who noted that the country will start taxing capital gains from next year.
“It’s inevitable; we will need to impose taxes on gains from trading of virtual assets.” – Reuters reported.
If South Korea indeed proceeds with implementing such taxes, it would mean that any profits worth more than 2.5 million won (roughly $2,200) from crypto trading will be subject to 20% capital gains tax.
