There was a major bloodbath yesterday in the Cryptomarkets following two news articles:
- There was news that Coinone and Bithumb, two of the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges in Korea, were raided by the police and Korean tax authorities.
- There was news that South Korea plans to ban all cryptocurrencies in the future.
This is genuine and unfiltered FUD. It's disappointing that one of the news came from Reuters, one of the premier news agencies in the world. Let's go through this one by one.
RAID or NOT RAID
South Korean exchanges have NOT been raided. The article at QZ states that Bithumb was asked for some tax papers, while Coinone was visited by some police officers who think cryptocurrencies are a form of gambling. Since there hasn't been an outright ban on cryptocurrencies, this police officer was most likely acting on his own - possibly for a shakedown or a bribe.
A proper raid on a multi million dollar operation would involve the Korean secret services, and Coinone or Bithumb would be shut down. This wasn't the case. And rest assured, because the Korean government isn't acting to ban cyrptocurrencies.
Disagreements In the Government
South Korea is not going to ban cryptocurrencies anytime soon. These is confusion within the government regarding what to do with the coin. The younger part of the government favor cryptocurrencies, while the older, more conservative politicians struggle to understand the cryptomarket. Look at this tweet from Joseph Young regarding the FUD:
Conclusion? It's all going to be okay. South Korea isn't against cryptocurrencies. ICON (ICX) is being considered for integration into the Korean government systems. Ripple and Stellar are being integrated into Korean banks. TRON (TRX) is considered for use in Korean TV stations.
Keep Calm, Keep Investing.