Since the ban of ICOs was announced in South Korea, several lawmakers have sponsored multiple bills targeted at lifting this ban or to provide a better regulation for initial coin offerings (ICOs). Unfortunately, these bills are still pending at the National House of Assembly.
Five Bills Pending
A recent report has made it known that as of now, there is five crypto related proposed bills still pending in the House of Assembly.
The report also shows that an amendment to the Electronic Financial Transactions Act has also been proposed by lawmaker Park Yong-jin of the Democratic Party. The amendment of this act is expected to help regulate the crypto market as well as ICOs.
A member of the house, Ha Tae-kyung as recently made it known that more than 8 lawmakers are actively working towards lifting this ban on ICOs. The bill will also take care of regulating all aspect of the crypto market, which is mainly trading, brokerage, and management.
KBA Regulating ICOs
The most important, well recognized and self-regulated crypto association in Korea, the Korean Blockchain Association (KBA) has also drawn up its rulebooks for governing crypto related activities. This rulebook has a section which caters for crypto exchanges and ICOs. This makes it convenient for anyone trying to set up any of these two follow a clear and “legal” path.
The KBA guideline stipulates that all ICO issuer need to make sure all their tokens are strictly in adherence to some set standards and also they need to get approved by the Financial Services Commission (FSC). Once all these are in place, they can then proceed to launch an ICOs
The association is well known for enforcing a legal framework, through which its member can operate within Korea.
According to the chairman of the association, Chin Dae-je, an ICO will only be allowed to take place once it has been examined thoroughly by the group. Information in the white paper or any other means of publications will also be greatly considered. Upon approval, the token issuer is only allowed to receive “only transparent funds” from identified investors.