The Financial Services Commission (FSC) of South Korea has denied reports suggesting it plans to publish a roadmap for permitting corporate crypto accounts by the end of the year. The clarification comes after Korea Economic Daily cited unidentified sources claiming that the FSC had developed a phased plan that would allow corporate entities to trade cryptocurrencies, starting with universities and local governments in 2025. Corporations and financial institutions were expected to follow in subsequent phases.
In a statement issued on Dec. 4, the FSC clarified that no decisions had been finalized regarding corporate crypto accounts, and that the discussions were ongoing. “The issue of corporate real-name accounts for virtual assets is set to undergo further discussion, and specific measures have not yet been finalized. Therefore, please exercise caution in reporting,” the FSC said.
The FSC recently launched a crypto committee, which held its inaugural meeting on Nov. 6 to explore the possibility of lifting restrictions on institutional crypto participation. Despite these discussions, South Korea currently enforces a de facto ban on corporations trading cryptocurrencies through exchanges that provide fiat-to-crypto services. Local regulations require investors to use real-name accounts at licensed banks partnered with crypto exchanges. So far, only five exchanges in South Korea have established such partnerships, and banks generally prohibit corporations from opening these accounts in order to comply with Anti-Money Laundering (AML) guidelines.
As a result, South Korea’s crypto market has been primarily driven by retail investors, leading to the Korean won becoming one of the world’s top fiat trading pairs for cryptocurrency in early 2023. The lack of corporate participation was highlighted during a recent brief political crisis in South Korea when President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law, a decision that was later overturned by the National Assembly within six hours. During this six-hour window, South Korea recorded nearly $35 billion in 24-hour crypto trading volume, reflecting the significant scale of the nation’s retail-driven crypto market.
In comparison, this figure eclipsed the total cryptocurrency trading volume in Indonesia for all of 2024 up to October, with Indonesia ranking third on the Chainalysis Global Crypto Adoption Index.