South Korea Clamps Down on Bitcoin Trading Amid Market Frenzy<br />28, 2017<br />South Korea will require people who trade Bitcoin and other virtual currencies to do so under their<br />real names, the country’s government said on Thursday, as part of efforts to curb speculation.<br />" the government said in a statement, while adding<br />that officials would discuss further potential moves to stem speculative trading, such as shutting down some virtual currency exchanges. that Cryptocurrency speculation has been irrationally overheated in Korea,<br />Kim Jin-hwa, who heads an industry association for businesses working with virtual currencies<br />and other applications of blockchain technology in South Korea, said most of the country’s virtual currency exchanges could already verify customers’ identities via their cellphones.<br />Requiring that trading take place using real names brings virtual currencies like Bitcoin more in line with other financial products in South Korea.<br />Although Bitcoin has shed some of its associations with payment for illegal activity, the real-name policy set out on Thursday could also make it easier for the South Korean government to track transactions<br />and to tax capital gains from virtual-currency investments.<br />Mr. Lee, who is no relation to the prime minister, said he believed<br />that the government had been hoping to cool the speculative fervor merely by discussing tighter regulation — and not by actually implementing too many rules.
