The global value of Bitcoin cryptocurrency was reportedly down about 13.5% earlier this week after news broke that South Korean lawmakers were preparing to introduce a sweeping ban on use.
According to a report by The Guardian, Thursday morning news sent the price of a decentralized, tradable digital asset popular among many online casino enthusiasts plummeting by $2,000 from the previous day's high of $14,890.
“There is a lot of concern about cryptocurrency, and the Ministry of Justice is basically preparing a bill to ban cryptocurrency transactions through exchanges,” Justice Minister Park Sang-ki reportedly announced .
The newspaper reported that Korea has more than a dozen cryptocurrency exchanges and that the domestic value of digital currency has increased by about 1,500% over the past year due to various demographics such as housewives and college students, but this popularity has raised concerns that gambling addiction may increase and led to numerous raids by tax authorities and police.
The Guardian reports that once the Justice Department drafts a Bitcoin ban, the measure must go to the national parliament and win the support of a majority of the agency's 297 lawmakers to become a national law. But the newspaper detailed that the process could take months or even years to complete, and the government's official website went down Thursday after about 55,000 South Koreans logged in to a digital petition involving Moon Jae In's president and asking him to stop the proposed ban.
Moon Jong-hyun, an analyst at EST Security, reportedly told the newspaper that the implementation of the planned bill would make Bitcoin transactions in South Korea “not possible,” but difficult.
“Key traders, especially hackers, will find it difficult to cash in the profits from virtual coin investments in Korea. But they can go abroad, for example, to Japan,” Moon reportedly reported by The Guardian.
In addition, the newspaper reported this week that it further witnessed U.S. billionaire businessman Warren Buffett declaring that he would never invest in Bitcoin before predicting that all cryptocurrencies would fail in the future.
