South Korean cryptocurrency exchanges such as Bithumb, Korbit, and Coinone put down their positions as telemarketing businesses on their own.
They have applied the decision made by Fair Trade Commission (FTC) on saying that cryptocurrency exchanges are not telemarketing businesses and took preemptive actions to protect their consumers.
According to South Korean Government and industries on the 2nd, Bithumb and Korbit recently gave up their positions as telemarketing businesses and removed their telemarketing business registration numbers from their homepages and others.
Major South Korean cryptocurrency exchanges have reported themselves as telemarketing businesses to local governments and published their registration numbers on their homepages or Smartphone applications. However, FTC, which is the ministry concerned with Electronic Commerce Law, decided that it cannot see cryptocurrency exchanges as telemarketing businesses due to differences in types of businesses. Also they were concerned that there would be a controversial issue regarding people thinking that cryptocurrency exchanges are businesses that were approved by South Korean Government due to their registration numbers.
Bithumb and Korbit respected the decision made by FTC and gave up their positions.
“We recently canceled declaration of telemarketing business to protect consumers who use our services and to satisfy government policies and we also removed registration numbers from our homepage.” said a representative for Bithumb.
Another cryptocurrency exchange called Coinone also announced its plan to give up its position as a telemarketing business.
“We are planning to cancel declaration as a telemarketing business soon.” said a representative for Coinone. “However, we still need some time to carry out corresponding procedures such as notifying our members of our decision.”
It is meaningful that cryptocurrency exchanges gave up their positions as telemarketing businesses on their own without any sanctions from South Korean Government. Although FTC was looking into taking active measures initially, it decided not to take any separate measures after cryptocurrency exchanges have begun to take actions on their own.
It is expected that more cryptocurrency exchanges will begin to give up their positions in the future. However, they are now thinking about what type of business they are going to register themselves as and continue their businesses.”
“All cryptocurrency exchanges are now thinking about what type of business they are going to register themselves as.” said a representative for a cryptocurrency exchange who requested anonymity. “However, we are going to take actions and measures to enhance our protection on consumers.”
Staff Reporter Yoo, Seonil | ysi@etnews.com