South Korea Proposes Amendments to Strengthen Cryptocurrency Regulations

According to PANews, South Korean lawmakers have introduced amendments to the Virtual Asset User Protection Act to enhance oversight of speculative cryptocurrency investment chat rooms on social media and tighten regulations on crypto exchanges. The proposal, led by Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) members Min Byoung-dug and Kang Hoon-sik, mandates these chat rooms to register with the Financial Services Commission (FSC) as quasi-investment advisory businesses. Under current laws, such entities are prohibited from compensating investment losses, guaranteeing returns, or promoting false profit rates. The proposed amendments also require crypto exchanges to report any creation or modification of their terms and conditions to the FSC. Additionally, as reported by Digital Asset, legislator Min Byoung-dug has put forward a bill aimed at safeguarding customer assets in the event of a cryptocurrency exchange's bankruptcy. This amendment seeks to ensure that customers' rights to recover their assets are not treated as general unsecured claims, which would otherwise be distributed among the bankrupt estate.