South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) governor Lee Bok-hyun says he disagrees with the view that crypto cannot be seen as financial investment products or securities, while revealing he assisted local prosecutors in designating Terra-LUNA tokens as securities, according to local media reports.
“As a person in the field of law and financial services, [I hold] the opinion that under certain circumstances, [crypto] can be judged as securities,” said Lee at a press conference on Thursday.
South Korean prosecutors investigating the fall of Terra-LUNA issued an arrest warrant on Wednesday for Terra cofounder Do Kwon and five other affiliates on charges of violating the capital markets law.
This came on the basis that the prosecutors saw Terra’s now-defunct stablecoin and sister cryptocurrency as securities.
South Korea President Yoon Suk-yeol announced earlier this year his administration it will regulate crypto in two ways — tokens that resemble securities and non-securities.
The government plans to regulate securities-like tokens under the existing capital markets law, while non-security tokens, or utility tokens will be supervised under an upcoming law on cryptocurrencies.
The country’s financial authorities have yet to designate which cryptocurrencies will be regulated as securities.
