Four Days Before the Virtual Asset Act... Financial Supervisory Service and Nambu District Prosecutors' Office Hold 5th Meeting

Virtual Asset Act Scheduled for Enforcement on the 19th
FSS and Southern District Prosecutors' Office Share Know-how and Achievements
Fast-track Transfer Possible Under FSC Consultation

High-rise buildings in Yeouido's financial district. Photo by Younghan Heo younghan@

On the 19th, ahead of the enforcement of the Virtual Asset User Protection Act (Virtual Asset Act), the first industry-specific law related to the virtual asset market, the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) and the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office held their fifth meeting.

On the 15th at 10 a.m., the FSS headquarters hosted the 5th joint workshop attended by Lee Bok-hyun, Governor of the FSS, and Shin Eung-seok, Chief Prosecutor of the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office, the two organizations announced.

In preparation for the enforcement of the Virtual Asset Act, the two agencies shared their readiness and held a total of four joint workshops since April to respond to unfair trading practices.

At the workshop, the FSS demonstrated the virtual asset unfair trading transaction analysis platform and analysis techniques it developed during the first half of the year. The transaction analysis platform was built as a high-performance web server system suitable for processing large-scale transaction data submitted by virtual asset exchanges, reflecting the characteristics of the virtual asset market. It also automated simple and repetitive calculation tasks during the analysis process, such as price manipulation records, and implemented functions including suspicious transaction group analysis, trade reproduction, statistical extraction, and connectivity analysis.

The Virtual Asset Crime Joint Investigation Team of the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office shared practical know-how through presentations on virtual asset crime investigation cases. They explained cases of scam coin issuance and price manipulation investigations under existing criminal law before the enforcement of the Virtual Asset Act. It is expected that the punishment paradigm for fraudulent acts in the market (insider trading, price manipulation, fraudulent unfair trading) will also shift after the enforcement of the Virtual Asset Act.

Shin Eung-seok, Chief Prosecutor of the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office, said, "Since the Virtual Asset Act was enacted in July last year and the Virtual Asset Crime Joint Investigation Team was launched at the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office, investigations into scam coin issuers and price manipulators have been actively conducted." He added, "The Southern District Prosecutors' Office will firmly and strictly respond to unfair trading practices in virtual assets together with the FSS."

Lee Bok-hyun, Governor of the FSS, stated, "After the law is enforced, we plan to establish market discipline through strict and prompt supervision, inspection, and investigation of unfair trading." He also noted, "However, regulatory blind spots still remain, so continuous efforts are needed to supplement the virtual asset regulatory system, and organic cooperation among related agencies is necessary to respond to unfair trading."

Going forward, the FSS plans to consult with the Financial Services Commission and refer cases to the prosecution via a fast track if it deems rapid compulsory investigation necessary during the investigation process.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.