It became known that the chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (#SEC) Gary Gensler plans to meet with the leadership of the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) in South Korea. This became known from the local media.
The agenda of the meeting will concern the classification of non-fungible tokens (NFT) and the possible approval of spot bitcoin-ETFs in South Korea. The meeting is reportedly scheduled for May 2024.
Lee Bok-hyun, the head of the FSS, reportedly intends to officially categorize NFTs as digital assets. If this market segment becomes subject to regulation, issuers may face new regulatory obligations.
Notably, there is no precise definition of NFTs: there is no consensus among industry participants on whether NFTs should be considered technological innovations, digital assets or securities. Nevertheless, according to FSS, NFTs are becoming a target of speculation as the overall cryptocurrency market is growing rapidly.
Reportedly, #Gensler and Lee Bok Hyun will be discussing the approval of bitcoin ETFs in South Korea. The country imposes restrictions on the introduction of investment products related to digital assets. In addition, domestic companies are prohibited from acting as intermediaries for cryptocurrency #ETFs traded internationally.
Interestingly, shortly before the launch of the Bitcoin ETF in the U.S., the SEC held talks with representatives of the BlackRock and NASDAQ stock exchanges.
Earlier, both the ruling and opposition political parties in South Korea announced their intention to launch a similar product before the elections on April 10, 2024. South Korea's cryptocurrency regulation law was passed in 2023 and is expected to take effect in July.
In January, a spokesperson for the Financial Services Commission of Korea (SFC) said that introducing cryptocurrency ETFs in #South Korea is not feasible. According to the representative, a ban on investment in virtual assets would help stabilize the financial market and protect investors.
