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According to a new report, South Korea is contemplating reversing a ban on Initial Coin Offering in the coming months. The Korean time’s reports of a plan by the authorities to allow ICO and digital token based fundraising and make it possible for domestic investors to make advancements in Blockchain based technologies
The media company, which is one of South Korea’s most popular newspaper accounts of an ongoing discussion, between South Korea’s tax agency, the justice ministry and other concerned government offices, acknowledges possible talks on plans and conditions for a possible revitalization of ICOs in the country.
September’s Decision
If the discussions bear fruit and everything goes as planned, the country could witness a major reversal of the ban announced last September.
Financial regulators had previously banned raising money via any form of virtual currency including initial coin offerings and recommended regulation over the same. The decision in September by the South Korean authorities was attributed to the fact that there existed risks and possibilities of financial scamming. The announcement by China in the previous weeks may also have influenced South Korea’s decision.
Even after announcing the ban, the administration was reluctant to implement the ICO rule and was yet to impose any company into returning ICO funds. But this did not stop the migration of local blockchain startups into crypto-friendly countries and environments like Estonia and Switzerland. However, South Korean citizens remained free to invest in foreign ICOs.
According to Kang Young Soo, an official overseeing Cryptocurrency trading policies, the decision was yet to be made on whether to reverse the decision made in September or not. He, however, acknowledges that they were considering a third party view on the same. Mr. Kang had admitted in a recent industry forum, of plans to advance the blockchain technologies while regulating crypto trading.
Other sources familiar to the country’s tax code confirmed the rumors and expect a U-turn of September’s decision soon as the nation resolved and fixed the legal groundwork regarding crypto trading.
What To Expect?
Well, various sources have given a hint on what to expect. One, the source advised ICO-enthusiasts to expect an imposition of capital gains tax, VAT or both. The source also admits of a possibility of levying corporate tax from crypto exchanges and regulation by issuing of licenses. He, however, acknowledges that the matter was still in discussion and various agencies, including banks and tax agencies, were being brought to the table for transparency. In any case, the government cannot implement the policy on its own without tracking capital inflows into ICO.
ICOs make sense for startups because of their little paperwork and the fact that they let companies solicit money directly from the investors. The ban that didn’t limit trade oversees still worked for the startups, as they were able to raise funds overseas.
Even as the ban was implemented, investors with interest in ICOs grew significantly. This forced the government to rethink its decision. The proposed policy changes are a great deal for investors when it comes to transparency.
Cryptocurrency Markets Bearish
On Thursday Morning, the Cryptocurrency markets plunged to new lows, or below $8000, in a delayed reaction to negative publicity from Google. This publicity is raising skepticism in the already volatile markets where investors have been experiencing short-term shocks since 2013 when China started discouraging her nationals from participating in the trade.
The market leader Bitcoin’s lost 13.25% of its value in the wake of the ban; this loss has cumulatively seen Bitcoin shed off a mind-boggling approximate of 43% of share value from January 2018. According to market data, the Bitcoin Market was trading at $14,111.98 as the year began. On the other hand, Ethereum and Ripple currencies’ values are down by 14.54% and 16.58% to trade at %593.6 and $0.66 respectively. Summarily, according to Coin Market Cap report, all but two Cryptocurrencies’ stocks are trading in lows ranging between 11% to 26%.
Google Follows Facebook Move And Bans Gambling Advertisements
Google, a US-based global leading search engine, and advertisement firm issued a statement in March 2018, prohibiting “bad advertisements” effective from June 2018 on the AdWords platform. Google’s, in a document released to the media, stated that Cryptocurrencies’ information which includes; Cryptocurrency exchanges, Cryptocurrency trade reviews, Initial Coin Offering (ICO) and crypto wallets are “bad” advertisements as they are speculative and largely lack policy regulations. Google further stated that cryptocurrencies are emerging threats to Google services users and they have a “moral and ethical obligation” to protect Google users from “deceptive and misleading promotions.”
Google has followed in the footsteps of the arch-business rival, Facebook. Similarly, Facebook had, in January this year, banned all Cryptocurrency advertisements in a move that was geared to restore Facebook to its intended purpose of enhancing social relationships in the world; these social relationships had systematically being replaced by advertisements, which were unwarranted.
Financial Analysts Forecasts
Market analysts are sharply divided on the impact of the negative publicity from Google and Facebook. On one side, the market analysts state that Facebook, which is a vital advertising platform in the world, with almost similar market influence to Google, initiated the ban and the markets only experienced short-term bearish trends before reverting to bullish growth. Following this analogy, these market analysts predict that Cryptocurrency markets will regain their bullish patterns that will see more ICO traded in the coming months. However, they cannot predict when the markets will recover. Will it be a matter of days, weeks, months or years? Amongst them, it is suspected that some investors are propagating these sentiments to lower the value of the significant cryptocurrencies in anticipation of massive ICO buyouts.
On the other hand, some market analysts allude that this recent negative publicity is one too many and the Cryptocurrency markets will never recover. Their perspective premised on Google’s prominent social standing globally. It is widely believed that Google has nailed the last nail and investors will be rushing to sell off their shares anticipating further losses.