Privacy-oriented cryptos are banned in South Korea

With the new regulations to be introduced in South Korea, the trading of privacy-oriented cryptocurrencies such as Monero (XMR) and Zcash (ZEC) will be officially banned.

In South Korea, the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of the country’s regulatory agency, the Financial Services Commission, announced regulations that will come into force next year regarding cryptocurrencies.

Privacy-oriented cryptocurrencies such as Zcash (ZEC) and Monero (XMR) will be officially banned under the new provisions, according to local media.

These cryptocurrencies, which provide transaction confidentiality to their users in South Korea, have been under strict precaution for a while. Throughout 2020, major cryptocurrency exchanges based in South Korea were forced to take privacy-focused cryptocurrencies off the list. As a result of these efforts, there is no longer any stock market in the country that lists coins such as Monero and Zcash.

Some of the regulations to be introduced concern banks. Accordingly, banks that offer fiat channels to customers must only work with cryptocurrency exchange accounts that are verified with their ID numbers and have real names. In addition, banks will be held responsible for conducting anti-money laundering (AML) risk assessment checks on exchanges.

The changes to be introduced will be implemented from March 24, 2021.

What are the privacy coins?

There are over 30 privacy-based crypto money projects on the market. The main ones can be listed as Monero, Dash, Zcash, Verge, Horizen, PIVX, BEAM, Grin.