The nominee for South Korea’s prime minister, Kim Boo-Kyum, by the president Moon Jae-In may not be as harsh on cryptocurrencies. South Korea had recently launched a crackdown on cryptocurrencies and the increase in crimes because of them but that stance may shift soon with the new prime minister nomination.
The government had been vocal about the rampant increase in illegal activities such as tax evasion and money laundering because of cryptocurrencies in the country. The Ministry of Economy and Finance, the Ministry of Justice, the Financial Services Commission, and the National Police Agency had decided to join hands to curb this problem. The various agencies had been playing their roles in the fight against crime and cryptos. This has resulted in increased monitoring of transactions, tight regulation, and a law that requires trading accounts on exchanges to be made only with real names.
Recently, Seoul had announced the seizure of $22 million worth of cryptocurrencies from tax delinquents. The tax authority, National Tax Service, had identified 1,566 individuals and companies with overdue taxes. Out of these, $22 million had been seized in cryptos from 676 individuals.
South Korea has also imposed a 20% tax on cryptocurrency profits under effect from 2022. The prime minister nominee has stated to make sure there are no victims of this law. But it is too soon for the cryptocurrency community to get their hopes up because Kim Boo-Kyum has maintained a neutral stance as he has also spoken in support of the chairman of South Korea’s Financial Services Commission, Eun Sung-soo, who called cryptocurrencies to have no intrinsic value. Kim also downplayed the matter of a petition to ask Eun to resign so if Kim is a crypto proponent he will still be surrounded by crypto critics.
