The last few weeks have been very tumultuous for the South Korean cryptocurrency landscape, with regulators going back and forth with their decisions. The first blow came when regulators went back on their words and decided to tax NFTs as assets. After that, the second blow came with revised cryptocurrency taxation rules. Under the new rules, longtime cryptocurrency holders had to pay an exorbitant amount of tax for rules that were nonexistent at the time of acquiring those assets. It naturally led to widespread protests from the country’s crypto investors, and opposition political parties also supported them. This set of events led to another round of confusion. Regulators could not go forward with the revised policies, and the country was at a standstill.
In what would be a major victory for the local cryptocurrency community, regulators have postponed the date for revised tax rules. Now the new rules will be implemented from 1st January 2023 instead of 2022. It would give investors the much-needed time to figure out how to deal with the revised taxation policies. The move from the government is also a boost for opposition parties, who now enjoy support from crypto investors across the country.
Cryptocurrency regulations have always been a slippery slope for governments and authorities. In the past, Crypto exchanges like Binance had called for a global, unified crypto law to overcome these problems. While no such law seems probable in the near future, the South Korean government’s decision shows the power of a unified local community of crypto investors.
