The National Assembly has yet to deliberate three cryptocurrency bills since the lawmakers proposed them last year.
Each of the three major parties proposed the bills under different names, but they have many things in common.
The three bills proposed that the government should decide whether to adopt the registration system or the license system for cryptocurrency exchanges. The exchange should have a capital of more than 100 million won and less than 3 billion won.
The bills stipulate less than five years of jail or fine of 50 million won for an unlicensed, unregistered and unauthorized cryptocurrency exchange.
Any of the bill or the compromised bipartisan bill would regulate the numerous questionable exchanges, according to a lawyer from South Korea’s largest law firm Kim & Chang.
He said the government and the National Assembly have two options in regulating the cryptocurrency exchanges. One is to legislate a special bill aimed sorely on cryptocurrencies. The other is to add a few codes on cryptocurrency business to the existing financial laws.
He said it might be easy to add a few codes to the existing laws, but this approach would not reflect the special features of cryptocurrencies. He said a new legislation on cryptocurrencies might be desirable.