On Tuesday 20 February 2018, one of South Korea's top cryptocurrency regulators, Jung Ki-joon who at the time was serving as the head of Economic Policy Coordination at the South Korean Office of Government Policy Coordination died. Police assume that he had a heart attack ,the real cause is under investigation. He was aged 52.

At the time of his death, he was responsible for coordinating the different opinions that different South Korean government ministries held. His death comes only one month after South Korea enacted a ban on anonymous cryptocurrency trading accounts. However, this stopped short of closing down South Korean Cryptocurrency Exchanges. Theoretically, his death should not impact cryptocurrency trading and regulations. In such cases, investors often react neither rationally nor objectively .They have been terrified.

The importance of South Korea in the Cryptocurrency trading market

South Korea is only the world's 11th largest and Asia's 4th largest economy. However, as a result of the high volume and number of South Korean people investing in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, South Korean cryptocurrency regulations are often seen as a benchmark for other countries to follow. As a result, many cryptocurrency investors are paying close attention to South Korean cryptocurrency regulations. Consequently, many of these investors have cautiously pulled their money off in recent months with the price of Bitcoin falling from USD 19,435.92 on 17 December 2017 to USD 6,021.76 on the 6 February 2018.

In 2017 an estimated 4.5% of all Bitcoin transactions were conducted with South Korean Won which South Korea's national currency.

South Korean Ban on government official engaging in cryptocurrency trading

In March 2018, South Korea banned all civil servants and other government officials from participating in cryptocurrency trading. This ban extends well beyond the regular types of conflict of interest rules as well as bans of transacting business in related fields or industries. These types of rules usually apply to civil servants and government officials. With this law, civil servants and government officials whose job descriptions are entirely unrelated to cryptocurrency trading could also potentially be disciplined for engaging in cryptocurrency trading. This ban is in many ways a continuation of the hardline regulation vision that was started under the leadership of Jung Ki-joon.

Cryptocurrency fraud issues in South Korea

In January 2018, South Korean regulators uncovered USD 600 million in illegal cryptocurrency trading. In February 2018, cryptocurrency hackers backed by the North Korean government stole USD 7 million from the Bithumb South Korean cryptocurrency exchange.

Uncertainty about future cryptocurrency regulations in South Korea

One thing that cryptocurrency regulators in South Korea have been successful with is continuing to keep cryptocurrency investors guessing what course of action they are going to take terms of cryptocurrency regulation. This uncertainty leads to price volatility and a lack of stability as a result of the way investors react to this uncertainty. Many investors respond to this uncertainty by pulling their money out of cryptocurrency while a smaller number of investors specifically choose to invest in cryptocurrency when the markets are down in order to capitalize on the lower cryptocurrency price that this uncertainty has created.

The game is becoming quite tough.Do you think it was an accident?