From next year, South Korea’s Financial Services Commission (FSC) will allow organizations, institutions, and companies to trade crypto donations, turning around the earlier ban that curbed institutional investment in the cryptocurrency market.
New Rules and Pilot Program
3,500 companies and professional investors will be able to open real-name accounts with the FSC in early 2025. The pilot program will see some institutions holding a minimum of 10 billion won ($6.8 million) in financial investments join the market for digital assets.
Impact on Crypto Exchanges
Crypto exchanges may sell their holdings, including the fees paid in digital assets. But to keep prices from being manipulated, the FSC is mulling imposing a minimum circulating supply requirement for new listing tokens.
Issues Around Market Manipulation
South Korea saw its first pump-and-dump case under the Virtual Asset User Protection Act, which came into force in July 2024. To counteract this, the FSC is developing trading policies and calling on self-regulatory actions from cryptocurrency exchanges.
What This Means for Crypto in South Korea
BDACS Partners With Ripple to Boost Institutional Crypto Custody in South Korea #CryptoCommunity #CryptoNewshttps://t.co/0xWi9lHHg8
— CoinNucleus • Crypto News (@coinnucleus) March 1, 2025
This signals greater institutional adoption with regulation. Phased implementation allows the regulators to make policies better and reduce market threats. South Korea is emerging as a leader among regulated digital asset markets.
The shift by South Korea to authorize institutional crypto trading represents a meaningful direction. In stricter regulation and increased transparency, the country works toward balancing the crypto innovation that can come without appropriate investor safeguarding as it marches toward having an increasingly well-regulated market in digital assets.
