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| Rep. Yoon Chang-hyun of the ruling People Power Party speaks during an emergency seminar to discuss protective measures in the domestic cryptocurrency industry, at the National Assembly in Seoul, Monday. Joint Press Corps-Yonhap |
By Lee Min-hyung
The ruling party and the government started a two-day meeting to discuss measures to prevent the recurrence of a recent financial fiasco surrounding the once-popular Terra stablecoin and its sister token Luna.
On Monday, the ruling People Power Party held an emergency seminar to come up with measures to protect cryptocurrency investors.
The price of Luna recently fell to almost zero, sparking jitters in global crypto markets, as more than 99.99 percent of the ill-fated token's value virtually evaporated in less than a week. As the Terra ecosystem and Luna were designed and developed by Korean entrepreneur Do Kwon, local investors' faith in the once-red hot cryptocurrencies soared for the past few months while their global sensation peaked.
Under the theme of "Terra-Luna's collapse: causes and countermeasures," officials from the ruling party, the financial industry and the government brought forth a series of key issues regarding the management of lingering risks in the nascent crypto market.
Rep. Yoon Chang-hyun of the party led the seminar with a group of crypto industry officials and legal experts ― such as Catholic University of Korea professor Jeon In-tae and Dongguk University professor Hwang Suk-jin.
Yoon, the chief of the party's crypto asset special committee, pointed out that no specific legal safeguards have been introduced as of now.
"While the introduction of laws is urgently needed, we can't sit around idly in terms of investor protection anymore taking a lack of legal regulations as an excuse," he said. He added that local crypto exchanges should take measures to ensure investor protection even before the introduction of laws, by launching various programs toward that goal.
After sharing up-to-date information on the recent crypto debacle, the National Assembly and the government will hold a special conference with leaders of the nation's top five crypto exchanges on Tuesday.
Ranking government officials ― such as the newly appointed Vice Chairman of the Financial Services Commission Kim So-young and Korea Financial Intelligence Unit Commissioner Kim Jeong-kag ― will also attend Tuesday's meeting. They are expected to urge the heads of crypto exchanges to introduce tighter standards on the listing and delisting of such assets, so investors will not to suffer abrupt losses as seen in the Luna fiasco.
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