South Korea and Hong Kong join forces for crypto crackdown
South Korean and Hong Kong Customs administrations have struck a partnership to help curtail illegal foreign transactions that are carried out via digital assets.
The duo to stop illegal foreign exchange transactions via crypto
South Korean authorities formed a partnership with Hong Kong regulators to help reduce the use of digital assets to circumvent illegal foreign exchange transactions. The two groups aim to improve the situation as over 60% of the transactions recorded and under investigation in South Korea were channeled to Hong Kong.
South Korean Customs announced on Feb. 16 that they had decided to create an information exchange deal with Hong Kong during a bilateral meeting between them. In the meeting, Korea’s Yoon Tae-Sik, head of the Korean Customs Service, and Hong Kong Customs Commissioner Ho Puishan discussed the matter.
The groups decided to sign a memorandum of understanding to cement their deliberations (MOU).
The two entities also agreed to cooperate on other ‘hot’ issues like drugs and crimes in the Asia-Pacific region. The news on cooperation between the two countries comes when India and other countries call for a united front in crypto regulation.
However, a global joint effort to regulate crypto is yet to be carried out.
Regulators going hard on crypto globally
Although a global crypto regulation framework has yet to be in place, and no such arrangements are currently underway, regulators are making bold crypto regulations in individual nations. Now, in the U.S., the SEC has been cracking down on major crypto organizations for a few weeks.
In February, the SEC settled charges with Kraken for $30 million and ordered them not to offer crypto staking there again. The move came hours after Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong pointed out that the SEC could be seeking to do away with crypto staking.
NYDFS and SEC also asked Paxos to stop issuing BUSD stablecoin as it classifies it as a security.
In the U.K., crypto exchanges and other crypto-related organizations must register before advertising. However, not everyone was amused with the action as they felt the nation would have been better off fighting inflation.
This ‘harsh’ crackdown on crypto has come as a wave, with many other nations figuring out how to streamline the industry. Keep watching crypto.news for updates on this and other crypto-related news.
