South Korean authorities are stepping to investigate any irregular activities involving cryptocurrency amid renewed retail craze over the virtual money whose daily trade volume exceeds retail stock investments.

The Office for Government Policy Coordination said on Monday that the government will launch a pan-government special crackdown on illegal activities using virtual assets such as money laundering and scams from this month to June after a meeting with related government offices.

The Financial Services Commission will demand financial institution to up monitoring if fund withdrawal takes place after crypto trade. The finance ministry will work with the Financial Supervisory Service to pore over foreign exchange law and other regulatory violations.

Police, the Financial Intelligence unit and tax office will examine signs of irregularities such as money laundering.

The anti-trust agency will examine whether exchange platform operators or other managers abided by the rules.

Taxing on virtual assets will proceed as planned after reviewing voluntary report until September, a government official said.

There had been signs of surge in remittance as arbitrage traders have been exploiting the so-called kimchi premium, the price gap in cyptocurrency prices in Korea exchanges and outside as Bitcoin and other virtual money prices have been rising faster in Korea.

According to market tracker Coin Market Cap, daily turnover at 14 cryptocurrency exchanges engaged in won-based transactions reached $21.63 billion as of April 15, overwhelming the trade of retail trade turnover of 9.4 trillion won in Kospi and 9.7 trillion won at Kosdaq.

According to Coin Market Cap, global bitcoin price reached $56,000 as of Sunday, where as in local virtual currency exchange Upbit 74.55 million won, or $66,690.

By Moon Il-ho, Lee Sae-ha, and Lee Eun-joo

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]