The head of South Korea’s financial regulator to discuss crypto with Gary Gensler: Report
The head of South Korea's Financial Supervisory Service, Lee Bok-hyun, is reportedly planning to meet with United States Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler to discuss crypto regulation.
According to a Dec. 18 report by South Korean news outlet Chosunbiz, Lee will visit the SEC in January and plans to hold a meeting with Gensler. The head of the FSS reportedly plans to discuss the state of the crypto market and the direction of the surveillance policy affecting the space. Cointelegraph reached out to the SEC but did not receive a response at the time of publication.
“[R]Legal cooperation between countries is important for borderless virtual assets,” said an unnamed South Korean government official.
The meeting comes at a critical time for the financial regulators of both governments. Many experts have predicted that the SEC will approve many Bitcoin (BTC) exchange products in January. The FSS is set to implement policies by July 2024 on how crypto investors deposit funds into exchanges and how companies handle those transactions.
Related: South Korean financial authorities request reports on unlicensed crypto exchanges.
The US and South Korea are also at loggerheads over the extradition of Do Kun, a South Korean citizen and co-founder of Terraform Labs. Terra's co-founder was arrested in Montenegro in March and sentenced to four months in prison for using fraudulent travel documents. At the time of publication, reports suggested that Kwon might be extradited to the US before South Korea.
Under Gensler, the SEC has been criticized by many inside and outside the crypto industry for refusing to rule on crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs). The commission has several pending applications from asset managers, including BlackRock, but to date has never approved a BTC or Ether (ETH) ETF — only investment vehicles tied to crypto futures.
Magazine: Crypto Regulation: Does SEC Chairman Gary Gensler Have Final Comments?
