Last week, South Korea suggested all the country's crypto exchanges could be shut down in September. Eun Sung-soo, chair of the Financial Services Commission, said the agency has yet to receive any Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) applications required under a recently amended law going into effect this year. He said: "There are an estimated 200 cryptocurrency exchanges in the country. But if the current situation continues then all of them could be shut down." South Korea's Financial Transactions Reporting requires VASPs to register with financial authorities. The government began accepting registration on March 25, but no exchanges have applied yet. The Commission will only approve exchanges that can demonstrate the robustness of their anti-money laundering systems.
On April 19, the government's policy office said that authorities will implement a "special enforcement period" from April to September 24 to shut down any "illegitimate crypto businesses" and ensure that exchanges are complying with the law.
Here is the rest of the week in review:
Turkey's central bank ruled out a total ban of cryptocurrencies in the country and predicted a wide range of crypto regulations is coming within 2 weeks. Speaking on state-run channel TRT, Governor Şahap Kavacıoğlu said: "You cannot fix anything by banning crypto and we do not intend to do this." His comments came less than a week before a planned ban on the use of cryptocurrencies for payments is to go into effect, and after the detention of 4 employees of Turkish crypto exchanges being investigated by the government. Without giving details about the upcoming new rules, Kavacıoğlu indicated they would clarify the legal definition of cryptocurrencies and regulate how institutions should store them, adding they are needed to address the "alarming" amount of funds leaving the country via crypto. Turkey's crackdown on crypto continues amid its probes into Vebitcoin and Thodex, local exchanges that face criminal complaints of hundreds of millions of assets stolen.
The New York Stock Exchange on Friday filed a 19B-4 Form on behalf of investment firm Valkyrie Digital Assets, as it prepares to launch its Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF). The form filing will start a 45-day review period when the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) acknowledges the filing. During that period, the SEC must either approve or reject the application or extend the review timetable. Valkyrie CIO Steven McClurg said: "This is something that I've wanted to do for five years now. It wasn't until recently that I believed that the SEC would probably approve a Bitcoin ETF." Although the SEC has rejected every Bitcoin ETF application in the past, many crypto analysts believe new SEC Chair Gary Gensler, who taught blockchain courses at MIT, could change the agency's and give ETFs the green light. Several investment managers have applied for a Bitcoin ETF in hopes of approval, and the SEC is also reviewing applications from Kryptoin, VanEck, and WisdomTree.
Crypto prices plunged to $1.88 billion this week, due to lots of bearish news. For the majors, Dogecoin (DOGE), Polkadot (DOT), and XRP posted double-digit losses, while Uniswap (UNI), Binance Coin (BNB), and Ether (ETH) bucked the trend with gains. In the top 100, the biggest losers were NANO, down 34%, IOST, down 30%, and Ravencoin (RVN), down 26%. The biggest gainers were Solana (SOL), up 70%, PancakeSwap (CAKE), up 46%, and Celo (CELO), up 45%. Next week traders will watch if there is a bounce from the correction.
The author owns a small amount of BTC.
