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South Korea’s ‘crypto friendly’ president seeks STO, IEO oversight

source-logo  forkast.news 11 April 2022 03:02, UTC

South Korean president-elect Yoon Suk-yeol is reportedly working with financial authorities to regulate security token offerings (STOs) and initial exchange offerings (IEOs). 

Fast facts

  • STOs, currently being reviewed by Yoon’s Presidential Transition Committee, tokenize traditional securities such as real estate and stocks. 
  • The Financial Services Commission proposed amending the Capital Markets Act to include STOs, while mulling whether such financial products will be offered on traditional exchanges or cryptocurrency service providers. 
  • The committee is also looking to grant more cash-to-crypto licenses to crypto trading platforms in efforts to dilute the local crypto exchanges oligopoly. 
  • South Korea has only four cash-to-crypto exchanges — Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone and Korbit — that have over 95% of the local crypto market share.
  • Right-leaning Yoon, who starts May 10, promised crypto-friendly policies in his campaign, including the reversal of the 2017 ban on initial coin offerings (ICOs) by greenlighting IEOs. 
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