In September China announced a ban on initial coin offerings (ICOs) which has resulted in a short-term decline of the major cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum. Just recently, on the 29th of September 2017 South Korea also declared a ban ICOs, but this time it went almost unnoticed for the cryptocurrency market participants.
So why South Korea decided to ban ICOs?
Apparently, the main reason is a fear that method of financial speculation of the cryptocurrencies is not productive. Besides, how to tax untraceable money? And it seems that governments just love this explanation while approaching cryptocurrency regulation. And the South Korean official position is that most initial coin offerings have a greater probability to be a scam rather than a financial instrument.
While anonymity provided by cryptocurrencies remains, governments are likely to find different excuses to ban or avoid using this type of digital money. But perhaps at some point, if the exponentially growing demand for cryptocurrencies will continue, they will have no choice but to implement it in their financial structure.
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