South Korea’s Cryptocurrency Exchanges Will Scrutinize Themselves: Report

South Korea’s biggest cryptocurrency industry body will reportedly carry out self-evaluations of its members to ensure they are playing by a set of self-regulatory rules.

The Korean Blockchain Industry Association, an industry body that includes 33 cryptocurrency exchanges, has revealed it will carry out evaluations of 21 exchanges to ensure they are following a raft of self-regulatory measures mandated by the entity in December, Yonhap reports.

First announced in December, the move to foster a self-regulatory environment saw a number of measures including ethical codes for exchanges in a bid to improve transparency among what has become one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency trading markets. The industry body also mandated stringent rules to prevent insider trading and market manipulation.

Korea’s biggest cryptocurrency exchanges including Bithumb, Coinone, Upbit and Korbit will all undergo evaluations, according to the report.

The self-regulatory guidelines were notably introduced after the proposal of a blanket ban on cryptocurrency trading by South Korea’s increasingly scrutinizing justice ministry in mid-December, promptly followed by strict guidelines by the government.

However, the domestic cryptocurrency industry earned a reprieve this week after the country’s financial regulator backed cryptocurrency exchanges to carry out ‘normal’, non-anonymous transactions. The regulator also insisted the government would urge traditional banks to establish ties with exchanges to carry out transactions through virtual bank accounts. Furthermore, the regulator called on the government to focus on developing a framework for the ‘normalization’ of cryptocurrencies in society, instead of increasing regulation.

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