South Korea announces it will not recognize Bitcoin as a legal currency

According to the Korea Herald, South Korea's financial regulators recently refused to recognize Bitcoin and other virtual currencies as legal forms of currency, making South Korea the third country after Thailand and China to deny the currency attributes of Bitcoin.

On December 11, according to the Korea Herald, South Korea's financial regulatory authorities recently refused to recognize Bitcoin and other virtual currencies as legal forms of currency, making South Korea the third Asian country after Thailand and China to deny the currency attributes of Bitcoin.

Just last week, the Bank of Korea's negative stance on virtual currencies seemed to have loosened, which once boosted the Korean market's optimism about Bitcoin. However, after a week-long dialogue, the Bank of Korea, the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, the Financial Services Commission and the Financial Supervisory Service recently declared that Bitcoin has no "intrinsic value" due to its lack of stability (the exchange rate with the US dollar was halved to $650 in the past week), and expressed concerns about the lack of structural and measurement indicators for Bitcoin.

South Korea's financial regulator has stopped short of banning Bitcoin as an illegal activity, but has pledged to step up monitoring of virtual currency transactions, especially for money laundering and other illegal activities.

There are currently several Bitcoin online trading markets in South Korea, including Korbit, BitUP, Ddengle and Kraken. A few weeks ago, a bakery in Incheon became the first retailer in South Korea to accept Bitcoin payments.

Financial regulators in many Asian countries are cautious about virtual currencies, while U.S. financial regulators have not yet made a clear position. However, some large U.S. companies have begun to take cautious measures - for example, Apple has removed several Bitcoin-related applications from the App Store.