South Korea Panel to Review Bill Requiring Crypto Influencers to Disclose Holdings Aug. 26

South Korea’s National Assembly Political Affairs Committee will review a bill on Aug. 26 that would require influencers who provide virtual-asset, or cryptocurrency, information to disclose their holdings. Lawmakers will also take up a measure to scrap the country’s “one exchange-one bank” rule and amendments that would tighten exchanges’ obligations to manage customer assets.

Digital Asset reported on Aug. 24 that the committee plans to convene a plenary session at 10 a.m. on Aug. 26 to formally introduce an amendment to the Virtual Asset User Protection Act proposed by Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Seung-won.

The amendment would require a person to disclose the compensation received and the type and amount of virtual assets they hold if they repeatedly advise an unspecified broad audience to trade virtual assets or are paid to induce trading in a specific token.

The measure is intended to help users assess potential conflicts of interest involving influencers who provide cryptocurrency-related information.

Bills to strengthen crypto exchanges’ obligations to manage customer assets are also on the agenda. An amendment proposed by Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Hyun-jung would require operators to keep users’ virtual assets segregated in separate wallet addresses.

A separate amendment proposed by People Power Party lawmaker Lee Heon-seung would require virtual-asset service providers to regularly verify balances of crypto assets entrusted by users and establish risk-management systems.

The proposal is intended to prevent accidents such as the recent mistaken Bitcoin overpayment at a domestic cryptocurrency exchange.

The committee will also review an amendment to the Act on Reporting and Use of Certain Financial Transaction Information that would abolish the “one exchange-one bank” rule. The bill, proposed by People Power Party lawmaker Kim Sung-won, would end the current requirement that a cryptocurrency exchange can sign a real-name deposit and withdrawal account contract with only one bank.

The bills are being brought before the committee’s plenary session for an initial review. They are typically referred next to a subcommittee for detailed screening. If they clear the committee, they move to the Legislation and Judiciary Committee before going to a full National Assembly vote.