GuShiio.com South Korea has officially opened its door to the virtual asset market to corporate investors.
Source: Newsis
Compiled by: KarenZ, Foresight News
On February 13, South Korea held its third meeting of the Virtual Assets Committee, which plans to allow legal persons to open real-name virtual asset accounts in stages and gradually open up institutional participation rights in the virtual currency market. This policy marks that South Korea has officially opened the door to the virtual asset market to corporate investors. It not only reflects changes in the environment of South Korea’s virtual currency market, but also indicates the trend of mainstreaming cryptocurrencies. But at the same time, law enforcement agencies such as prosecutors and the State Administration of Taxation have been allowed to open real-name accounts, which may transfer and sell criminal proceeds confiscated in virtual currency and collected tax-owed property, which may cause market concerns.
So what are the instructions for the third virtual assets committee meeting held by the South Korean Financial Commission today? The following is compiled from Newsis.
Kim Sho-young, Vice Chairman of the Korea Financial Commission, held the third meeting of the Virtual Assets Committee and decided to promote the plan for legal persons to open real-name virtual assets accounts in three stages. First, law enforcement agencies, non-profit legal persons, virtual asset exchanges, etc. are allowed to participate in institutions that need to open accounts for “cash purposes”, and will gradually expand to professional investment legal persons (investment and financial purposes) and ordinary legal persons in the future.
Therefore, the Korea Financial Commission has drawn up a roadmap to gradually allow legal persons to participate in the virtual currency market without compromising user protection and market stability.
Phase 1: Law enforcement agencies, non-profit legal persons and exchanges
Law enforcement agency account opening (completed)
Procuratorial organs, State Taxation Department, Customs Department, local governments, etc. have been allowed to open accounts since November last year due to the confiscation of criminal proceeds and the compulsory collection of tax-owed property.
Opening of a non-profit legal person account (planned to be completed in the second quarter of 2025)
Since non-profit legal persons such as designated donation groups need to receive and cash out virtual asset donations, they will be allowed to open legal persons accounts in the second quarter of this year. However, due to the lack of specific standards and procedures in the process of receiving and realizing virtual assets, internal control standards need to be formulated in advance.
Opening of virtual asset exchange accounts (planned to be completed in the second quarter of 2025)
The virtual assets (own assets) obtained by the exchange due to handling fees etc. need to be sold for operating expenses such as employee salaries and taxes, so there is an urgent need for sales transactions.
In view of the fact that such sales may be proprietary in nature and may cause damage such as price drops to users, the South Korean government plans to formulate public guidelines to limit the types and quantities of virtual assets sold.
Phase 2: Professional investment legal persons (planned to be launched in the second half of 2025)
The second phase of the policy plan to be promoted in the second half of this year allows professional investment legal persons to invest in virtual assets. According to the Capital Market Law, professional investment legal persons do not include financial companies, but are for listed companies and legal persons registered as professional investors (approximately 3500). This is to pilot transactions by legal persons for investment and financial purposes, mainly starting from the gradual liberalization of trading transactions by institutional investors with risk tolerance.
Since large-scale virtual asset transactions may bring potential anti-money laundering risks, the government will formulate relevant guidelines and monitoring measures before implementing them. In addition, due to the different investment capabilities of each legal person, the opening of accounts will be subject to detailed review by banks and exchanges.
Phase 3: Participation of ordinary legal persons (medium-and long-term plan)
The full participation of ordinary legal persons will be studied as a medium-and long-term plan, as it involves secondary legislation related to virtual assets and institutional adjustments such as foreign exchange tax system. The second stage of legislation needs to include the supervision of the business behavior of virtual asset exchanges and the regulatory system of stablecoins. At the same time, the Foreign Exchange Transactions Law needs to be improved to monitor cross-border virtual asset transactions.
Future plans and prospects
The Financial Committee plans to join forces with government and private institutions to develop guidelines for legal persons to participate in virtual asset investment. Jin Zhaorong, vice chairman of the Financial Committee, said: “Regarding the second phase of virtual asset-related laws, including issues such as stablecoins, dealers and transaction supervision, we will accelerate discussions within the Virtual Assets Committee.” He also added: “Regarding Token Securities, relevant legal amendments have been submitted, and we will actively support Congress to quickly pass the bill.”
Source: www.newsis.com/view/NISX20250213_0003064010
