Korean Market Mid-Week Update (Sorry for Being Late)

News:

Korea Fair Trade Commission Approves CoinOne User Agreement Updates, Waiting on Other Exchanges

Recently much of the conversation around Korea and cryptocurrency has been focused on the government, and what kind of regulations will be put into place. This is of course because of the conflicting announcements the government has made, ranging from a full ban coming from the Ministry of Justice, to recently an economic minister announcing that Korea will work towards “enabling regular trading”. But one place that hasn’t received much attention is exchanges’ response to the government, and whether they cooperate or work against government authorities.

This week Coinone updated their user license agreement to meet the standards set by the Fair Trade Commision. This comes after the FTC visited thirteen exchanges for investigation (investigation is a strong word. I would guess it was more like having discussions with the exchanges) into potential violations of user license agreement and electronic trading regulations. This was followed by alerting each exchange to the areas they needed to update.

The changes Coinone made to the user license agreement were regarding users accounts being used for illegal activity after having passwords stolen, and how users bear responsibility for damages incurred from such an event. This is of course is only when the company has no fault in the passwords being stolen. Other exchanges such as Bithumb and Upbit, are yet to make any changes and are said to be waiting for “more clear instructions” from authorities.

Seeing this and other announcements from exchanges, it would appear that they are looking to work with the government in order to create a healthy crypto market. We saw back in December Bithumb, Coinone and Korbit make a joint announcement suspending listings for the time being. This was seen as a preliminary move to demonstrate to the government that the exchanges were not trying to create over excessive fervor in the markets through continued listings. There was no exact term put on this, so for the time being, no listings are expected from any of the “Big Three” while exchanges like Upbit, and other small exchanges have continued listing, some as many as one a day. We will have to wait and see if these exchanges follow Coinone, or take a different path in dealing with authorities, and what effects that will have on the markets.

http://www.etnews.com/20180228000295

Only 1 in 10 Koreans Support Crypto Regulation According to Blockchain Survey

Recently the Korean Blockchain Industry Association conducted a survey regarding public opinion on cryptocurrency. The results aren’t surprising, and confirm what I have seen in my interactions with people here. When asked the question “What do you think about government regulatory policies on cryptocurrency?", only 12% of respondents said they approve, while 21% responded saying they were neutral. Over 41% of respondents said they oppose proposed regulations, saying they are regressive. But that isn’t even the best news. Over 85% of respondents, which means many of those 12% approving of the regulation said they are willing to use cryptocurrency as a means of payment, and 96% of respondents said they believe that cryptocurrency will be used “like cash” in the future.

These responses are nothing less that what I expected. Based on both my personal interactions with people here, and Korea's history as a leader in tech, with giants like Samsung and LG being core components of the national economy, the tech industry has always been an important part of Korean society. Korea has been one of the quickest nations to pick up on the importance of cryptocurrency and understand the impact it will have, and barring negative regulation, are set up to be leaders in the industry.

http://it.chosun.com/news/article.html?no=2847467

Upbit, Bittrex, Executives Meet in Korean Parliament to Discuss Regulation

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On the 27th, Bittrex CEO, Bill Shihara and CSO, Kiran Raj, met with authorities from the Korean government to discuss regulation under the title of “How To Regulate Cryptocurrencies?.” The main focus of the discussion seemed to be Bittrex introducing how they have worked with American authorities in the development of regulation, and what Koreans can learn from this.

The main point that seemed to be the focus of the discussion was the need for educated regulation to create a healthy ecosystem within which the industry can develop. Bill Sahara made this clear by saying “these are problems that exchanges can’t solve themselves,” and “it is important that everybody, including governments works together in order to create a healthy ecosystem.” UpBit CEO, Seok Woo Lee showed his agreement by adding that the lack of regulation in Korea is a disadvantage, and that they are waiting for guidelines from the government.

These industry leaders definitely tried to show the care that will be required in drafting regulations that will enable this sort of healthy ecosystem. Raj stated that each coin is inherently different, and needs unique regulation, much like the internet.” Shihara emphasized the need for balanced regulation. He said “Regulation should enable more economic actors to come into the space, as well as more users. Soon the world will be operated in a way that normal life will naturally use blockchain and most people won’t even know about it.”

I think there are two big takeaways from this meeting. The first is the Korean government inviting leaders like this, and creating spaces where they can listen to them and learn from them is definitely a good sign for the future. Coming off the surge of unexpected announcements from the Korean government last month, this new posture that is illustrated by this and previous meetings can only be seen as an improvement and step forward for authorities, and should be viewed as healthy progress for the industry as a whole. The second is that regulation is needed, and wanted by everyone in the industry. Currently the amount of fraud and market manipulation in the space cannot be denied, (Look no further than Bitconnect) and proper, well drafted regulation is, as a Shihara stated, necessary in order to bring more capital and people into the space. This regulation needs to be clear and educated, not just bills thrown together by those in power who think they know best.

http://www.zdnet.co.kr/news/news_view.asp?artice_id=20180227160001

http://www.thebell.co.kr/free/content/ArticleView.asp?key=201802270100054140003418&svccode=00&page=1&sort=thebell_check_time

Sentiment:

I am sure the article regarding the blockchain survey illustrates it plenty, but sentiment here contains to remain good. Although it's not the raging fervor that had Kimchi Premium at fifty percent, it's still healthy, and I actually see that as a good thing. Before we were way ahead of the market's real value and had entered way too much of a "Go for the Lambo" mentality.

A majority of the articles I read while researching this are pointing to what Korea can do to establish itself as a leader in the blockchain industry, how Korea can work with the international cryptocurrency markets to innovate. Although there are plenty of articles reporting on Bill Gates statement about how cryptocurrencies kill people, I think we all know that is something we can ignore, and isn’t seeming to have an impact here, just like everywhere else.

Also, as a I side note, in a bookstore I visited today, I saw over 20 different books referencing blockchain or Bitcoin, and although some of the titles are purely speculative (A 100k Bitcoin), the interest in the space doesn’t seem to be decreasing. The one downside is that, just like google trends shows for data elsewhere, the searches for cryptocurrency and blockchain are on a downtrend. But again, I don’t think that is terrible considering that the amount of hype in December and early January was excessive and over the norm, and now we are returning to healthy market growth.

New Midweek Segment:

Also, I am going to continue doing the weekend market update (These should come out between Sunday and Monday USA time) but I also want to do a mid week article giving an overview on a subject you guys are wondering about. Last time I wrote about the Samsung issue, and asked for advice before, but as cryptocurrency goes, these are all old issues now.

So moving forward, put things that you want me to cover in the comments to the weekend update, and I whatever has the most upvotes, that will be my topic for the mid week overview. So whether it be regulation, new exchanges opening, Korea based projects etc, just throw them out and upvote them.

Thanks Guys!

Korean Listings:

Upbit:

02/22 BlockMason Credit Protocol BCPT

Delisting:

02/25 Adney Agoras AGRS
02/25 Maid Safe MAID
02/25 First Blood 1ST
(These delistings will take place as of 03/09)

Bithumb
Coinone
Korbit

All still under the self-imposed no listing regulation. No news regarding when this will change.

Coinrail:

02/19 Amber AMB
02/26 Aeron ARN

Coinnest:

02/23 PundiX PXS
02/26 VeChain VEN

Gopax

02/22 Aelf ELF

tl;dr

Korean regulatory authorities and exchanges are beginning to develop a more cooperative environment for the industry instead of just spontaneous government announcements with no basis. YAY