South Korea will advance "virtual currency selling short" legislation, plan to introduce stock market-level supervision

According to Edaily, South Korea's financial regulator plans to impose strict supervision on the "coin leasing" service of virtual currency exchanges, and will introduce regulatory measures equivalent to the stock market in the second phase of legislation on virtual assets. At present, major exchanges such as Upbit and Bithumb have launched services that allow investors to borrow up to 4 times the guaranteed value of virtual currencies, essentially forming a trading structure similar to stock sell short. As 90% of South Korea's virtual asset market is composed of individual investors, regulators are concerned that excessive leverage may pose serious risks. Experts have called for the introduction of temporary guidelines as soon as possible before the completion of the legislation (expected to take 1-2 years) to limit the scale of leverage and set the eligibility conditions for participation in order to prevent investors from losing money.