South Korea’s government is starting to crack down on cryptocurrency trading in the country and said it is considering shutting down the nation’s bitcoin exchanges. The country is attempting to curb widespread investor speculation fueling the market. The proposed legislation would ban the use of anonymous cryptocurrency accounts starting next month. It would also prevent banks from providing settlement services for unidentified digital-currency trades on bitcoin exchanges. The government cautioned that digital currencies could be “vulnerable to the damage from investment fraud or hacking attacks on the exchanges.” Last week, a Seoul-based cryptocurrency exchange suspended trading and filed for bankruptcy. Youbit had been hacked twice in eight months and lost a chunk of its digital currency reserves. Investigators are looking into whether or not North Korea was possibly involved.
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