South Korea Issues Warning on US Bitcoin ETFs Amid Global Developments

The Financial Services Commission (FSC), which is the primary financial regulator in South Korea, has issued a warning to local businesses, advising them not to broker spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that originate from the United States.

The Federal Securities Commission (FSC) released a brief press release on January 12th, highlighting the fact that domestic securities firms that broker spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that are listed overseas “may violate” the current government of South Korea policy on virtual assets as well as the Capital Markets Act.

However, the statement acknowledges that the country’s regulatory framework for cryptocurrency is still under development.

In light of this, the South Korea commission intends to conduct a study of the regulations concerning the updates in other countries, including the United States.

On January 10, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) granted the long-awaited legal authority to trade spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

Trading began the following day, on January 11, marking the beginning of trading. Collated information indicates that the total volume of trading for ten spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) exceeded $4.5 billion on the first day of trading.

According to the estimation of Timothy Peterson, an investment manager at Cane Macro, the buying activity across the ETFs indicates that around 47,000 bitcoins, which are currently valued at $2.1 billion, will need to be purchased on the spot market.

Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) on the spot market come next. A spot Ether exchange-traded fund (ETF) was first proposed by BlackRock in November 2023.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has set a deadline for deciding on May 23, 2024.

Many supporters of cryptocurrencies feel that the launch of Bitcoin spot ETFs indicates that an Ether ETF would be successful.