Crypto is not banned in South Korea. South Korea is one of the only countries where you can liquidate billions of crypto into fiat (even though the trading volume is 10-20 times smaller than last year).
Exchanges can run as an e-commerce company and you don’t need license to run it. Just need to follow the usual KYC/AML and other requirements.
Yes. ICO is banned and it is not easy with banks as the regulations change quite often.
I don’t (personally) think I will see the registered STOs in South Korea any time soon either…
It is more than crypto regulation itself. Mostly due to the controlled capital market and the culture of the retail investors.
Japan will be a good comparison. Similar in many ways but quite different.
Anyways these two countries are playing a very important role in the global crypto market. (At least in terms of the liquidity in trading and ICO investment).
Maybe this bearish market will give the regulators time to study more about it and come out with more structured regulations. Corporates are still quite bullish in integrating blockchain and crypto in both places.
China is the another animal in Asia and it is always quite interesting to see how these 3 countries are reacting.