South Korea’s financial regulator has announced that it is ready to conduct 24-hour monitoring of suspicious activities in the cryptocurrency market. According to its announcement, since the Virtual Asset User Protection Act will take effect on July 19, in order to prevent unfair trading practices in the virtual asset market, virtual asset exchanges must continue to monitor abnormal transactions.

The "Virtual Asset User Protection Act" is about to take effect

In an effort to protect cryptocurrency users, South Korea’s cabinet approved enforcement regulations for the Virtual Asset User Protection Act on June 25. The regulation, which will take effect on July 19, aims to protect cryptocurrency users and establish a healthy order in the virtual asset market.

The Act requires VASPs to continuously monitor unusual transactions and authorizes the enforcement of regulations defining those transactions. Abnormal transactions include unusual fluctuations in virtual asset prices or trading volumes, as well as rumors or reports that may affect prices. The Financial Supervisory Service and VASP will develop self-regulatory guidelines to monitor these transactions and any suspected unfair transactions must be promptly reported to the financial authorities.

Additionally, it introduces criminal penalties and fines for unfair trading practices involving virtual assets, such as insider trading and price manipulation, with penalties up to life in prison.

(South Korea approves virtual asset user protection law: 70% of exchanges keep cold wallets, and insider trading will be criminally liable)

24-hour monitoring system to immediately report relevant illegal transactions

According to a report by The Block, South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) has developed a 24-hour monitoring system with local exchanges that will screen for any suspicious activity in the cryptocurrency market. And the main local exchange, which handles 99.9% of South Korea’s cryptocurrency trading, has established monitoring systems based on its latest standards.

FSS also recommends that exchanges set up a dedicated team within the organization to monitor suspicious transactions and provide relevant guidance, such as how to detect illegal activities in transactions through auditing information (such as on-chain data). The agency pointed out that illegal activities in the cryptocurrency field include unfair trading, price manipulation and falsification of circulation data using undisclosed information about tokens.

A hotline has also been set up between the exchange and FSS to report relevant illegal transactions immediately.

This article In response to the entry into force of the Virtual Asset User Protection Act, the South Korean government conducts real-time monitoring of the cryptocurrency market first appeared on Chain News ABMedia.