Supervision upgrade! Huobi Korea and 23 other cryptocurrency exchanges will conduct self-regulation

South Korea's regulatory policy on encrypted digital currencies has always been controversial, but this situation seems to be gradually broken. Recently, according to a report by Korean media Seoul Finance, the Korea Blockchain Association has required 33 cryptocurrency exchanges to implement self-regulation. 23 exchanges including Huobi Korea have agreed to this requirement, and the regulatory signal for cryptocurrencies has become stronger.

According to South Korean media Seoul Finance, since local banks in South Korea still refuse to provide virtual account services for most cryptocurrency exchanges, the Korea Blockchain Association is formulating self-discipline standards for cryptocurrency exchanges, requiring 33 cryptocurrency exchanges to implement self-regulation. Currently, 23 exchanges have expressed support, including Huobi Korea, the second stop of Huobi's overseas expansion. The remaining 10 exchanges rejected the request and withdrew from the association.

Jeon Jae-jin, chairman of the self-regulatory committee of the Korea Blockchain Association, said that next they will focus on checking the security and transparency of exchanges.

The 23 exchanges include Glosfer, Nexcoin, Neoframe, Upbit, Bithumb, Gopax, Coinlink, Scoin, Okcoin Korea, Whalex, Zeniex, Kairex, Kcx Exchange, Komid, Korbit, Coinone, Coinzest, Coinplug, Crypto Company, Dexko, Korea Encryption, Money Exchange and Huobi Korea.

Public information shows that Huobi Korea was officially launched in late March. It provides compliant digital asset trading services to local users based on the Korean won. Its headquarters will be located in Seoul, South Korea, and will be operated by Huobi Korea's business team. This is the second international stop for Huobi.com after Huobi USA obtained the MSB license.

Cryptocurrency has always been controversial in South Korea, and the regulatory policy is unclear. According to reports, as early as January 11 this year, the South Korean Ministry of Justice confirmed the plan to close all digital currency exchanges. However, the South Korean presidential office quickly commented: "This policy has not yet been finalized."

Choi Jong-ku, chairman of the Financial Services Commission of South Korea, also said, "The government is considering whether to close all local digital currency exchanges or just those that are breaking the law." However, this vague opinion has also aroused strong opposition from local residents and politicians. According to Babbitt, more than 200,000 people in South Korea signed a petition asking not to close the exchange.

This time, the Korean Blockchain Association took the lead in initiating industry self-regulatory standards, requiring cryptocurrencies to strengthen self-regulation, which can be seen as an upgrade in supervision.

Strengthening the supervision of encrypted digital currencies is becoming the attitude of many governments. In addition to South Korea, China completely banned ICO as early as September last year. Neighboring Japan is also strengthening its attitude on this. In early March, the Financial Services Agency (FSA) of Japan issued penalty notices to seven cryptocurrency exchanges and ordered BitStation and FSHO to suspend operations for one month. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on the other side of the Pacific has also been calling for cryptocurrency exchanges to accept SEC supervision and constraints.