Bitcoin, Ethereum Prices Plot Cautious Recovery as Korean Government Cools Trading Ban Rumors

The cryptocurrency market is eyeing a cautious recovery after financial regulators in South Korea publicly stated that they do not agree with the cryptocurrency trading ban that has been proposed by the country’s justice minister. In the meantime, though, nearly every major coin is trading below its previous-day level, and the ethereum price has snapped its streak of positive returns. Cryptocurrency Markets Chaotic as Korean Officials Spar over Regulations
As CCN reported, Korea’s Ministry of Justice revealed that although regulators struck a deal to curb anonymous cryptocurrency trading but not prohibit it outright, the agency has continued to draft a bill that would ban all cryptocurrency trading.

Cryptocurrency prices immediately began to careen downwards on South Korean exchanges, and the panic quickly expanded to exchanges outside the jurisdiction of Korean regulators. Within hours, the cryptocurrency market cap had plunged approximately $100 billion, and the market eventually bottomed out at $628.5 billion. Before long, though, the market began to recover. Korea’s Ministry of Strategy and Finance held a press conference in which the agency told reporters that the Ministry of Justice was acting on its own and the proposal had not been agreed upon by the country’s cryptocurrency task force, which includes a broad range of agencies including these ministries as well as the central bank.

“We do not share the same views…on a potential cryptocurrency exchange ban,” the Ministry of Strategy and Finance said.

Since this press conference, the cryptocurrency market cap has recovered by more than $40 billion, although it has thus far failed to reach the level at which it was trading before the initial report that the Ministry of Justice was still seeking a blanket trading ban