<Anchor> It is a
friendly economic time. Today (29th), we will also be with reporter Kim Hye-min. Reporter Kim, it's really a cryptocurrency craze these days. Many people are interested and they seem to be doing it a lot, but it seems that crimes are also taking advantage of the psychology of these people.
<Reporter>
Cryptocurrency investment is spreading to social problems. Recently, a'Kimchi Premium', where the price of virtual currency in Korea is higher than overseas, has been formed.
There was a crime of remittance to China after using this to bring in bitcoins purchased in China to a domestic exchange, sell them at high prices, and then send them back to China.
Cryptocurrency-related crimes have increased more than fivefold in two years. Last year, the police arrested 337 cases of virtual asset crime, which is 3.3 times higher than the previous year and 5.4 times higher than in 2018.
It is said that fraud or multi-step techniques are the most common. The smishing scam character impersonating a bitcoin exchange is also polarized.
Along with a text message saying'Your account has been logged in overseas' and saying'If you are not the person, please block the overseas IP', you will receive a link to a fake exchange. It's a way to take it.
<Anchor>
I think I shouldn't be able to open the text message link that Reporter Kim just told me about. So is that so,Recently, the government has been talking a lot about strengthening regulations on cryptocurrency exchanges, but they said they actually started to regulate.
<Reporter>
I started the maintenance of the exchange through the bank. From September this year onwards, exchanges that do not accept deposit and withdrawal accounts that can verify their real names through banks will not be able to operate. This is to sanction the use of money for terrorist financing or money laundering.
However, there are only four virtual currency exchanges currently operating with real-name accounts, including Upbit and Bithumb. It will fall.
Small and medium-sized exchanges are contacting banks to do this business together, but the reaction is passive because banks are concerned about a financial accident.
That is why many of the more than 100 cryptocurrency exchanges will have to close in September.
<Anchor>
So, it seems like that is the situation with stories related to the September closure. However, they say that the exchanges have come up with their own protection measures in this situation.
<Reporter>
I have come up with a variety of methods that make me wonder why I didn't make this in advance. First, Upbit recently limited the limit for deposits in KRW, which was unlimited, to 500 million KRW per day.
It is said to be in order to prevent money laundering and financial fraud, and we calculated and disclosed the fear-greedy index of individual cryptocurrencies.
With high volatility and high trading volume, when the price rises, we named it'greedy' and on the contrary,'horror'. In detail, it is divided into 5 levels: extreme fear, fear, neutrality, greed, and extreme greed.
Some exchanges have reopened the offline customer center, and Coinone opened the offline customer center, which was discontinued in 2017, on the first floor of the headquarters and started working.
It is said that customers can meet one-on-one with a professional counselor to discuss how to use the exchange and deal with them.
<Anchor> There
are things that can be done like this, but I think that's why I didn't do it earlier. But there was a similar thing in 2018. The government said it regulated, so the price had plummeted at that time. There are such movements that the government has recently regulated. How is the market price these days?
<Reporter>
First, let's revisit the situation in early 2018. Even then, the government warned of the overheated cryptocurrency market.
At the time, the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Materials stated that "a bill is being prepared to ban cryptocurrency transactions through exchanges."
At that time, the price of bitcoin fell sharply by up to a quarter. Again, as the government regulation policy came out, it fell from a maximum of 81 million won to 59 million won.
But now it's recovering quickly. Rather, investments from companies and institutions are continuing.Recently, Nexon Japan headquarters invested 100 million dollars directly in Bitcoin.
Chairman JPMorgan said that'Bitcoin is a scam' four years ago, but this summer, JP Morgan plans to launch a Bitcoin fund.
The volatility of cryptocurrency is large and there is a need for regulations to prevent abuse in crime, but it seems that the time has come to look at whether it can be recognized as currency itself.