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Luna Foundation Guard Funds Were Requested to Be Frozen by the South Korean Police

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Police in South Korea has sent warnings to cryptocurrency exchanges, requesting the freezing of funds linked to the Luna Foundation Guard.

On Monday, Korean authorities sent a request to the country’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, urging that funds not be transferred. The Luna Foundation Guard was specifically asked by the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency not to take any action. Authorities claim they have acquired evidence linking the group to embezzlement.

The Luna/Terra algorithmic stablecoin debacle earlier this month devastated investor portfolios overnight, with the coin’s value plummeting by nearly 99 percent. This request, on the other hand, is neither a demand nor legally enforceable. Each individual can choose how they wish to answer, but no one knows how they will react.

Luna Foundation Guard might be in trouble

Several large Korean investors have investigated and sued Do Kwon, the CEO of Terraform Labs, following the collapse of the TerraUSD (UST) stablecoin. As a result of this, the “Grim Reaper,” a Korean Financial and Securities Crime Joint Investigation Team, was revived.

Korean lawmakers have met with executives from Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit, and Gopax, among other sites. Because the leaders of these exchanges are not obligated to comply, this meeting is most likely a ploy to put pressure on them.

“We will review the exchange’s investor safety procedures,” Yoon Chang-Hyeon, chairman of the People’s Strength Virtual Assets Special Committee, wrote on Facebook, according to Newspim.

According to the publication, it is reasonable to assume that exchange representatives will be held accountable in some way for the losses suffered by investors as a result of the Terra (LUNA) price drop. The Korean National Assembly, according to Newspim, is making moves to limit punishment in this sector.

Coinone has suspended LUNA trading as of May 11th, and Binance has also suspended certain spot trading.

The request to crypto exchanges and the Do Kwon probe are unrelated, despite the fact that this official report is part of a broader story.

South Korea Is Entering the Metaverse Ecosystem With $186 Million Investment

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South Korea’s Ministry has allegedly offered $186.7 million to build a comprehensive metaverse ecosystem. This money would be utilized to assist the impactful expansion of digital content as well as business growth across the country.

The funds will be used to complete four primary objectives in creating an all-encompassing metaverse environment, according to the ministry in an official statement released on Sunday.

The “Expanded Virtual World” is the name given to this. Several government agencies want to use the metaverse as a powerful platform for education, cities, and media expansion and growth.

South Korea decided to develop its own metaverse platform

South Korean content makers would also benefit from assistance on several fronts in order to recruit the best talent for the platform. The ministry went on to announce that it will sponsor community-oriented creative events, including a metaverse developer competition and a hackathon.

Simon Kim, the CEO of Hashed, also stated that the new metaverse platform would place a particular emphasis on increasing commercial development by giving financial assistance to members.

For those unfamiliar, Hashed is a South Korean cryptosystem that has previously invested in several metaverse initiatives such as The Sandbox and Decentraland.

Park Yungyu, the ministry’s head of communication and policy, recently claimed in an announcement that the plan to develop a metaverse platform will be part of the country’s more expansive “Digital New Deal.” This agreement consists of a set of measures to promote the development of digital technology.

The South Korean Ministry also expects the metaverse to have a broad global reach. This is because most enterprises in this world region would have continuous access to it throughout time.

Korea still has significant issues to address, as the sector has pointed out several times. For example, the government prevents games from creating their own tokens and does not allow non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to be used in gaming.

Even though South Korea is one of the world’s most significant gaming marketplaces, this is a problem that many have raised in the past. With the proposed investment and a more open approach towards metaverse and NFTs, these issues might be resolved soon.

South Korea’s KB set to create history by becoming the nation’s first bank to roll out crypto ETFs

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South Korea’s leading Kookmin Bank or KB is gearing to launch cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds [ETFs] and futures products to retail investors and is in the course of charting history by becoming the first bank in the East Asian nation to do the same.

Confirming the news, the bank’s head of index quant management Honggun Kim quoted, “We will launch a virtual asset-themed equity fund, etc. We plan to publish periodicals as well.”

As per a Monday announcement, KB notified that it had formed a Digital Asset Management Preparatory Committee to establish product and strategy capabilities of virtual assets and artificial intelligence investment funds. Apart from the product’s launch, the committee would study risk and compliance issues for the investment funds.

As earlier reported in TronWeekly, the news follows after Singapore’s largest bank DBS outlined its intention to launch new retail crypto investment products at the tail end of the year. On Feb. 14, the Bank’s CEO Piyush Gupta stated that DBS would focus on ramping up its crypto operations in 2022.

Having said that, the massive popularity of crypto exchange-traded funds in South Korea is on a steady rise.

South Korea’s retail investors driving the demand of crypto ETFs

As per data obtained from Samsung Asset Management which launched two of the ETFs, there are in total eight crypto-focused ETFs currently available for investors as of Jan. 19, 2022, raking inflows to the tune of $1 billion. The nation’s big asset management firms are releasing their investment products, tracking Bitcoin and other crypto assets.

The new ETFs comprise Samsung Asset Management’s KODEX K-Metaverse Active, KB Asset Management’s KB STAR iSelect Metaverse, NH Amundi Asset Management’s Hanaro Fn K-Metaverse MZ, and Mirae Asset Global Investment’s Tiger Fn Metaverse. Some of these ETFs come from tech firms, chipmakers, and stocks related to South Korea’s entertainment industry.

The growing appreciation for digital currencies in South Korea is just one example of the burgeoning interest among Asian investors that have several options of financial instruments underpinned by blockchain technology.

Referencing a recent Euroclear report, Rahul Sen Sharma, of Indxx, a financial service firm, said demand in Asia-Pacific for ETFs is set to surge from $1.5 trillion to $5 trillion over the next five years.

South Korean university will issue NFT degrees to all 2830 graduates

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Hoseo, a South Korean University, made an announcement at the graduation ceremony on Friday. They declared that all 2,830 graduates of the class of 2021 will receive non-fungible token (NFT) degrees and certificates.

Switching from paper-based diplomas to NFTs is expected to make administrative services more accessible, allow for certificate revisions, and prevent fraud. Switching from a paper-based degree to an NFT, according to the school, will improve administrative services and prevent degree fabrication or alteration.

In South Korea, NFTs have been accepted by various industries and entities, with the country’s top corporations, Samsung, SK, and LG, including NFTs in their newest range of goods and services.

South Korean University

South Korean tactics to evade fraudulent activities

The concept of digital certificates has been discussed in the past. There has been an upsurge in the number of fraudulent documents, certifications, and other types of fraud. NFTs are explicitly created to counteract this. Regardless of their immutability, there remains an opportunity for verification as long as the certificates persist on the blockchain in their non-fungible condition. With NFTs in place, the days of physical papers being forged and a high number of frauds being committed are gradually fading away.

More individuals voting in favor of the uniqueness of the information builds confidence, and people may have more faith in the project process. Assume the paperwork (in the form of NFTs) indicates he has 5 years of programming training experience and that the document is genuine.

There is no way to deceive today since the blockchain records who you are, who created the NFT in question, when it was minted, and to whom it was issued (in the instance of stolen assets). This is the notion that is now being contested, and it holds a lot of power.

The Samsung-supported Sungkyunkwan University had its graduation ceremony earlier this week. He was said to have given NFT credentials to three students.

In South Korea, many industries and organizations, including the country’s largest corporations like Samsung, SK, and LG, have begun to incorporate NFTs into their newest product and service lines.

Integration of NFTs in education would enhance access to high-quality education while also raising literacy levels worldwide. Deborah Ojengbede, the CEO of AFEN Blockchain Group, spoke on the importance of NFTs in education, saying:

“The fundamental driving factor for today’s world, which is still dominated by web2 enterprises, is the digitization of current procedures for accessibility.” NFTs can evaluate educational activities digitally because of the [amount] of time people spend online.”

South Korea includes crypto in the financial survey as it wrapped up the first phase of CBDC

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South Korea’s statistical agency National Statistical Office [NSO] has finally decided to investigate households’ digital assets, such as bitcoin, starting from this year. As per local media sources, the bureau on 23rd January 2022 announced that it will include digital assets in its household finances report. The Household Financial Welfare Survey is conducted to gauge ‘financial soundness’ through household assets, liabilities, income, and expenses, and to understand the level and change of economic life.

According to sources, discussion in South Korea’s National Assembly with regards to the taxation of crypto assets was delayed by one year to 2023, but NSO decided to go ahead with the investigation as scheduled to secure data. The National Statistical Office defined virtual assets as ‘virtual assets traded through exchanges’.

The Statistical Agency is however yet to decide whether virtual assets will be included in traditional financial assets such as savings, stocks, and bonds or real assets such as real estate and automobiles. Therefore, the date of publication of the statistics has yet to be determined.

In another fresh development, its central bank- the Bank of Korea [BoK] has reportedly completed the first stage of its two-part pilot testing of its CBDC in December. The institution also revealed that the project is currently running its second phase.

South Korea’s BOK inches closer for its CBDC

South Korea’s central bank said Monday that it has successfully completed the pilot testing of issuance and distribution of digital currency and has been carrying out the second phase “smoothly.” As reported in the Korea herald after the completion of the second phase in coming June, the BOK plans to begin discussions on its actual launch and commercialization.

BOK’s mock testing of digital currency took off on August 2021, in collaboration with tech giant Kakao Corp,’s blockchain arm Ground X. The central bank is reportedly skeptical of all major economies adopting their digital currencies and said it would take “a long time” for them to fully launch them. According to a report, BOK stated,

“Central banks in major economies have been taking the stance that the digital currencies will replace cash rather than savings in banks. We are testing a slew of measures that could minimize the negative impacts of the digital currency on financial stability.”

South Korea’s Ruling Party is set to make history; will issue NFT for election

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South Korea’s ruling Democratic Party of Korea or DPK is on its way to creating history by becoming the world’s first political party to issue non-fungible tokens [NFTs] for fundraising in a presidential election, according to presidential candidate Lee Jae-Myung’s campaign committee on 2nd January 2022. As per official sources, starting from this month, the DPK will sell the digital images featuring Lee’s photos and policies to his supporters and raise donations to fund his election campaign.

The election committee’s latest fundraising plan comes close on the heels of DPK lawmaker Lee Kwang-Jae’s announcement on 30th December last year that he would accept cryptocurrency donations in mid-January and issue receipts for donations in the form of NFTs. In the press conference, the lawmaker also revealed the presidential candidate’s preparation for fundraising through the issue of digital tokens.

Emphasizing that the National Election Commission [NEC] gave a green signal last month that raising funds using NFTs does not violate the Political Funds Act or the Public Official Election Act. Apart from that, former minister of SMEs and Startups Park Young-sun, who is in charge of digitalization policies at the DPK’s election campaign committee, also boosted the party’s digital asset-friendly policies by issuing an NFT tagging her Facebook message written in 2018, in which she opposed the shutdown of cryptocurrency exchanges.

South Korea’s efforts to woo voters through NFTs

In an effort to win the hearts of young voters, the DPK’s presidential candidate has backed up the gaming industry’s attempts to use NFTs. During an interview with a YouTuber last month, he said that South Korea should lead the global trend of integrating games with digital assets and NFTs.

“If we deny what actually exists, it will be similar to an isolationist foreign policy,” he said.

Previously in December 2021, South Korea’s finance ministry announced its decision to delay taxation plans in the profits incurred through cryptocurrency for some time. In accordance with an amendment approved by its National Assembly’s finance committee, the crypto tax law, which was slated to be effective from 1st January 2022, has been postponed for a year.

Bybit decides to shut shop in South Korea

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Similar to every other regulator across the globe, South Korean regulators decided to mandate the need for a license. Bybit, a prominent crypto exchange decided to steer away from the region just while the final date to apply for a license was looming.

The cryptocurrency industry witnessed massive growth over the last couple of years. The drastic change from its nascent to its current stage had left the whole world in awe. Financial regulators, however, feared that cryptocurrencies could hamper the existing dynamics of the monetary world. This further pushed regulators into heavily scrutinizing the crypto market and exchanges seemed to be highly impacted by this.

The regulatory environment in South Korea has been hazardous for the last couple of days. With new regulations in place, over 60 crypto platforms were urged to alert their customers of either a full or partial suspension on trading. Exchanges operating in South Korea were obligated to register with the Financial Intelligence Unit by 24 September.

With this deadline just days away, Bybit decided to discontinue a few of its services in the region. These services were deemed important for the exchange to survive in the country.

Bybit to halt two major services in South Korea

In a recent announcement, Bybit stated that it would discontinue two services including its support for the Korean language on all its platforms and the official Korean community on social media. Both these features would be shown suspended from 20 September 2021.

Almost every exchange believes that regulations are needed in the crypto-verse. Bybit went on to address the same and asserted the reason behind its latest decision. The exchange stated,

“Bybit believes that regulations are necessary for the democratization of cryptocurrency. Bybit accepts its responsibility as an exchange and an industry leader in actively cooperating with regulations implemented by various jurisdictions to promote financial inclusion and develop the overall crypto industry.”

Additionally, the exchange noted that all other services would function as usual. However, Bybit also affirmed that it supported no Korean won markets as the exchange had no trading pairs that entailed the Korean won.

With Korea’s big crypto takedown underway, only a few exchanges like Upbit, Coinone, Bithumb, and Korbit have reportedly been allowed to function as they have fully complied with the local regulations.

Tron Foundation partners with Korea’s first multi-chain decentralized NFT wallet

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NFT space has been soaring higher than ever. Running parallel to this trend, the Tron Foundation has announced completing integration with Korea’s first multi-chain decentralized NFT wallet, Talken. While Tron is yet to release an official statement on the latest partnership, it took Twitter to reveal that as Talken completes the deployment of Tron, the two parties will explore ways to offer the TRX ecosystem users “a special joint NFT with commemorative significance and circulation value.”

The duo will also offer the token holders with additional perks to encourage Talken’s ecosystem development. The Justin Sun-led foundation’s tweet regarding the same read,

“We are pleased to announce that we have reached a strategic partnership with the NFT infrastructure Talken. We will strive to build an NFT world with a wide range of content without borders, jointly provide digital creators and collectors with better tools and services!”

Tron’s strengthening its foothold in the NFT space

The latest development comes after the foundation formed a strategic partnership with the NFT social platform called DeFine in August. As reported by TWJ earlier, the main objective behind the integration was to explore the TRX ecosystem and let all creators including artists, musicians, influencers, gamers, and athletes to engage and interact with their respective fanbase with digital assets such as non-fungible tokens and social/fan tokens.

A few weeks later, the social NFT platform revealed receiving a strategic investment from the Tron Foundation. DeFine had also announced that the capital raised by the platform will be deployed to scale products, NFT multi-chain ecosystem expansion, and the exploration of NFT-Fi and Metaverse.

Tron Foundation has been very vocal about venturing into the NFT marketplace and its ambitious roadmap to expand its footprint across the space. The TRX ecosystem aims to streamline comprehensive and efficient infrastructure to convert artworks as NFTs on the blockchain. In line with this, the blockchain network had previously launched its first-ever non-fungible token standard TRC-721.

Crypto not a financial asset, suggests potential Korean financial regulator

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While the entire world has started to view crypto as a promising industry, the nominee for the Korean Financial Service Commission [FSC], Seung-beom Koh,  believed otherwise.

Cryptocurrencies caught the eye of many this year. The industry was seen trying to successfully cut off ties with the dark web as it garnered recognition in the real financial world. With people pouring into the industry, the government began laying its focus on the crypto market while trying to regulate it. Some governments were glad to welcome digital assets into the monetary sphere, however, a few others continued to express distress over these assets.

Seung-beom Koh, the potential chair of the Korean FSC, suggested that it would be challenging to recognize crypto as a financial asset.

Crypto fails to meet the standards of a financial asset?

Addressing a recent press meet, the FSC chair nominee pointed out that officials from organizations like the International Monetary Fund [IMF], G20, and a few others wouldn’t categorize crypto as a financial asset. Koh stated,

“I understand that the Group of 20, the International Monetary Fund, other international agencies and a considerable number of experts find it difficult to see virtual currencies as a financial asset, and think they could not function as a currency.”

The interest in digital assets has surged in almost every region. In Korea, young people have reportedly been pouring funds into the market with hopes of achieving high returns. This is in light of the increasing household credit which has been showing the Korean economy in a bad reflection.

Koh with his potential take-over as the FSC chair hopes to diminish this surge in household debt. Speaking about the same Koh added,

“The FSC will push ahead with existing anti-debt measures and come up with additional steps, if needed, by mobilizing all available policy means.”

Korean Won [KRW] trading pairs are the latest to lose a spot on Binance

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Binance has bid adieu to an array of things over the last couple of months and Korean Won [KRW] trading pairs happened to be the latest to leave the platform.

One of the world’s most popular crypto exchanges, Binance had fallen under the purview of regulators from across the globe. The exchange had to deal with extreme scrutiny from these financial watchdogs. While the pressure persists and as the exchange continues to tackle them, it was seen discontinuing several services or support for certain assets.

Regulators from Japan, UK, Singapore, and the Cayman Islands were seen calling out Binance for operating in their respective regions without a proper license. Following this, the exchange lost prominent banks like Barclays in the UK and had also temporarily seized GBP withdrawals.

Now, in an effort to comply with the South Korean financial regulators, the exchange revealed that it would no longer support Korean Won trading pairs.

Korean Won shown the door

In a recent blog post the cryptocurrency exchange pointed out that would discontinue an array of offerings in Korea. This list included, the Korean Won trading pairs, KRW payment options, P2P merchant applications as well as Korean Language website support. KRW trading pairs would lose prominence in the Binance P2P section starting from 13 August 2021 post 11:00 UTC.

The exchange further noted that it was pulling the plug on the aforementioned services in order to comply with the regulations put forth by the South Korean government.

The blog post read,

“Our aim is to create a sustainable ecosystem around blockchain technology and digital assets. Binance welcomes developments to our industry’s regulatory framework as they pose opportunities for the market players to have greater collaboration with the regulators. We are committed to working constructively in policy-making that seeks to benefit every user.”

This big Binance takedown has caused the exchange great loss. While the monetary loss is on one side, the exchange has been losing out on major partnerships and this could cost the platform in the long run.