South Korea to Meet Five Major Crypto Exchange CEOs on Oct. 20, Hear Views on Tax Delay

The South Korean government will meet with the heads of the country’s five major cryptocurrency exchanges ahead of the planned January introduction of virtual-asset taxation to review preparedness and hear industry requests.

The government will hold an on-site meeting on virtual-asset taxation on Oct. 20 with the chief executives of Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit and GOPAX, along with officials from DAXA, the Digital Asset eXchange Alliance, News1 reported on Oct. 19.

Kwon Dae-young, first vice minister at the Ministry of Economy and Finance, and Yoo Young-jun, director-general for digital finance policy at the Financial Services Commission, are set to attend. The meeting will review the status of tax-system preparations at each exchange and hear about operational difficulties and requests for improvements tied to the new regime.

Whether to delay the start of the tax is emerging as a key issue, with the industry arguing that tax standards and related infrastructure are not yet fully in place. The meeting is also expected to address the lack of clear tax guidelines for transaction types including staking, airdrops and decentralized finance, or DeFi.

The government is proceeding with follow-up steps on the assumption that the tax will take effect in January. Lim Kwang-hyun, former commissioner of the National Tax Service, said during a parliamentary audit on Oct. 13 that the government was preparing to announce detailed rules on virtual-asset taxation around November.