The director of the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) of South Korea, Lee Bok-hyun, reportedly intends to meet with the chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of the United States, Gary Gensler, to discuss crypto regulation.
Chosunbiz, a South Korean news outlet, reported on December 18 that Lee intends to confer with Gensler during his January visit to the SEC. According to reports, the director of the FSS wants to discuss the current state of the cryptocurrency market and the trajectory of regulatory policies that impact the sector.
“International regulatory cooperation is crucial for borderless virtual assets,” stated an unidentified South Korean government official.
The meeting will occur at a critical juncture for the financial regulators of both administrations. Numerous specialists have hypothesized that the SEC may authorize multiple spot Bitcoin exchange-traded products in January.
In addition, the FSS was scheduled to enforce regulations in July 2024 concerning how cryptocurrency investors finance exchange deposits and how firms process such transactions.
Further dividing the United States and South Korea is the extradition of Do Kwon, co-founder of Terraform Labs and a citizen of South Korea.
March saw the detention and four-month prison sentence of the co-founder of Terra in Montenegro for utilizing forged travel documents. Kwon may have been subject to extradition to the United States before South Korea, according to reports at the time of publication.
The SEC’s apparent reluctance to identify a spot cryptocurrency exchange-traded fund (ETF) during Gensler’s tenure has prompted widespread criticism from both inside and outside the crypto industry.
Multiple asset managers, including BlackRock, have submitted applications to the commission; however, it has yet to sanction a spot Bitcoin or Ether ETF; it has only authorized investment vehicles linked to cryptocurrency futures.