bloomingbit

Kim Byoung-hwan, chairman of South Korea’s Financial Services Commission, said SK Hynix’s push to list its US subsidiary Solidigm would fall under the country’s dual-listing rules.
Testifying at the National Assembly Political Affairs Committee’s comprehensive audit on Oct. 22, Kim said Solidigm’s proposed listing is subject to the dual-listing guidelines. He added that SK Square and SK Hynix, as parent companies, must fulfill five obligations based on their duty to protect shareholder interests.
Under current rules, a parent company pursuing a dual listing must complete five steps: assess the impact on shareholders, prepare measures to protect them, communicate with shareholders, obtain a board resolution for or against the plan, and make disclosures. Under dual-listing rules set by the Financial Services Commission and the Korea Exchange, those procedures are required when a company seeks an exception to a dual listing that is, in principle, prohibited.
Kim also addressed whether the rules apply to overseas listings. In a question-and-answer exchange with Democratic Party lawmaker Lee Kang-il, he said the dual-listing guidelines apply to both overseas and domestic listings.
He did not give a definitive answer on whether a securities registration statement would need to be filed in South Korea. There has been no official announcement or specific details on a listing plan yet, he said.
Solidigm originated from SK Hynix’s 2021 acquisition of Intel’s NAND flash and solid-state drive businesses. In the ownership structure, AI Company sits above Solidigm, followed by SK Hynix, SK Square and SK Inc.

U.S. spot-Bitcoin exchange-traded funds recorded more than $500 million in net inflows in a single day.
Trader T data for October 21 showed combined net inflows into U.S. spot-Bitcoin ETFs totaled $528.41 million. BlackRock's IBIT brought in $235 million and Fidelity's FBTC attracted $212.71 million, accounting for about 85% of the total.
Grayscale's GBTC and Bitcoin Mini Trust posted net inflows of $32.59 million and $8.21 million, respectively. Bitwise's BITB recorded $19.23 million of net inflows, Ark Invest's ARKB took in $9.79 million, Franklin Templeton's EZBC added $7.31 million and Valkyrie's BRRR saw $3.57 million of net inflows. The remaining products recorded no net inflows or outflows.
Month-to-date net inflows came to $463.3 million, while year-to-date net inflows totaled $1.39 billion.

Financial Services Commission Chairman Kim Byoung-hwan said consultations on the government’s draft Digital Asset Framework Act are in their final stages. He also said the Ministry of Economy and Finance is gathering opinions on virtual-asset, or cryptocurrency, taxation scheduled to take effect next year.
Kim made the remarks on Oct. 22 during a National Assembly audit by the Political Affairs Committee. “Legislation related to digital assets is in the final stage of consultations, and we will do our best to have it introduced as quickly as possible,” he said.
During the hearing, lawmakers raised concerns that taxation could be implemented before an industry regulatory framework is in place. Song Eon-seok, a lawmaker from the ruling People Power Party, said the government told the president in a July policy briefing that it would prepare the bill within the year, but has yet to present its draft.
Song said the government would be imposing taxes before legally clarifying what kind of product digital assets are. He argued that the tax should either be abolished or its implementation postponed until the bill is prepared.
Kim did not present a separate position on the timing of the tax. He said there were a variety of views on the issue and that the Ministry of Economy and Finance was collecting opinions.

تواصل حكومة كوريا الجنوبية جمع الآراء فيما تدرس ما إذا كانت ستمضي قدماً في فرض الضرائب على الأصول الافتراضية، أو العملات المشفرة، والمقرر حالياً بدء فرضها في يناير من العام المقبل. وتعتزم مصلحة الضرائب الوطنية وضع اللمسات الأخيرة على إشعار إداري ذي صلة بحلول نهاية أكتوبر، لكن الحكومة لم تحدد بعد ما إذا كانت ستمنح تأجيلاً إضافياً.
قال لي هيونغ إيل، نائب رئيس الوزراء ووزير المالية، أمام لجنة الاستراتيجية والمالية في الجمعية الوطنية، خلال تدقيق برلماني شامل في 22 أكتوبر، إن الحكومة ستتخذ قرارها بعد دراسة متأنية لآراء القطاع والخبراء والنواب.

Shin Hyun-song, governor of the Bank of Korea, said the central bank’s previous two rate increases gave policymakers room to assess additional economic indicators. He also said a decline in the exchange rate can boost the purchasing power of low-income households.
Speaking after the Monetary Policy Board left the benchmark interest rate unchanged at 3.00% on Oct. 22, Shin said back-to-back rate hikes in July and August had given the central bank greater flexibility to run policy in line with domestic economic conditions.
He described the hold decision as “the fruit after hoeing.” The comment followed his explanation in August that the central bank had acted with a hoe to stop what might otherwise have required a shovel, underscoring that the preemptive move had bought time to watch additional data.
Still, he said upside risks to growth and inflation had risen from the previous forecast.
“Compared with the August outlook, upside risks to growth and inflation appear to have grown,” Shin said. “But I did not think it would be too late to make a judgment after checking additional data, including third-quarter real gross domestic product and October inflation trends.”
Shin also commented on the impact of exchange-rate moves on households, saying a 10% decline in the exchange rate raises the purchasing power of households in the first income quintile by more than 0.4%. The first income quintile refers to the bottom 20% of households ranked by income.

A security vulnerability in PHP, the programming language used to build websites, has raised the risk that external attackers could remotely take control of servers. Governments in several countries temporarily suspended some web services to apply patches and conduct inspections, while cryptocurrency companies checked whether they were exposed.
Cointelegraph reported on October 22 that the PHP Foundation disclosed why its response was delayed even after distributing an emergency patch. The foundation said patching work was repeatedly halted for months because of the security team's decision-making process and limited resources. It described the delay as a structural failure.
The vulnerability involved two flaws that could allow unauthenticated attackers to execute arbitrary code on servers. The foundation said it detected related signs in 2024, but a fix was delayed as it considered the impact on the existing PHP ecosystem. The response became a higher priority in August after security firm Calypso and OpenAI separately reported the vulnerabilities and demonstrated that real attacks were possible.
The government service suspensions were carried out as a precaution, not because attacks had been confirmed. The Netherlands' digital identity service and National Cyber Security Centre website, as well as Finland's public government web services, were temporarily taken offline. France and Germany also suspended some government websites.
In the cryptocurrency industry, Coinbase and BitGo disclosed the results of their reviews. Coinbase Chief Security Officer Jeff Lunglhofer said the company conducted a full inspection as soon as it learned of the flaw and found no exposed PHP instances. BitGo also said its platform was unaffected.
Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao said some websites may still not have applied the patch and urged users to be cautious when visiting websites over the next few days. The PHP security team said no real-world exploitation had been confirmed by the time of disclosure.

The Bank of Korea kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 3.00%, pausing after back-to-back increases in July and August. Market attention is now turning to whether the central bank will deliver another hike next month.
The BOK’s Monetary Policy Board left the rate unchanged at its monetary policy meeting on Oct. 22. The central bank resumed rate increases in July and raised rates again in August, but opted to hold at the current level this time.
Inflation remains above target. Consumer prices rose 2.9% in September, higher than the BOK’s 2% inflation target. With oil prices staying elevated because of the war in the Middle East, inflation is forecast to remain near 3% this month as well.
Exports and the growth trend will also factor into future rate decisions. South Korea’s current-account surplus for January through August totaled $27.92 billion, about four times the level a year earlier. In August, the BOK raised its 2026 growth forecast to 3.3% from 2.6%. Rising home prices in parts of the Seoul metropolitan area and a renewed increase in household lending at major banks this month are also being watched from a financial-stability standpoint.
At the same time, a stronger won and heavier interest burdens are seen as reasons for caution on further tightening. The won traded as strong as 1,322.8 per dollar during the previous session. The BOK estimates that a 0.25 percentage-point increase in the benchmark rate would raise interest costs by about $2.39 billion for households and $2.61 billion for companies.
The Monetary Policy Board’s final meeting of the year will be held on Nov. 26. Before then, an advance reading of third-quarter real gross domestic product will be released on Oct. 27, followed by October consumer-price data on Nov. 2. BOK Governor Shin Hyun-song is scheduled to explain the background to the rate decision and the policy outlook at a press briefing at 11:10 a.m. on Oct. 22.

أدت النتائج القوية لشركة سبيس إكس إلى انتعاش الأسهم المرتبطة بالذكاء الاصطناعي. لكن ضغوط التمويل الناجمة عن الاستثمارات الضخمة ظلت محط الأنظار، بعدما سجلت ميتا أول تدفق نقدي حر سلبي لها منذ طرحها للاكتتاب العام.
في 21 أكتوبر، ارتفع مؤشر ناسداك المركب بنسبة 1.05%، فيما صعد مؤشر ستاندرد آند بورز 500 بنسبة 0.58%، ومؤشر داو جونز الصناعي بنسبة 0.69%. وقفز سهم إنفيديا بنسبة 2.54%، وارتفع سهم إيه إم دي بنسبة 3.36%، كما تعافى مؤشر فيلادلفيا لأشباه الموصلات بنسبة 1.97%.
قفز سهم سبيس إكس بنسبة 7.79%، بعد يوم من إعلان الشركة عن إيرادات بلغت 14.6 مليار دولار وصافي دخل قدره 4.4 مليار دولار في الربع الثالث. وارتفعت الإيرادات المرتبطة بالذكاء الاصطناعي بنسبة 830% على أساس سنوي، لتصل إلى 7.6 مليار دولار. كما قفز سهم سوبر مايكرو كمبيوتر بنسبة 9.55% بعد رفع توقعاتها لإيرادات الفترة من يوليو إلى سبتمبر إلى 18.5-19.5 مليار دولار، مقارنةً بـ14.5-15.5 مليار دولار.

يتوقع الاقتصاديون الستة الذين استطلعت يونهاب نيوز آراءهم أن يُبقي بنك كوريا سعر الفائدة الرئيسي دون تغيير عند 3.00%. ويرى هؤلاء أن صانعي السياسة سيقيّمون أثر الزيادات السابقة، بدلاً من رفع الفائدة للمرة الثالثة على التوالي بعد زيادتي يوليو وأغسطس.
أما المسار بعد التوقف، فسيتطلب أخذ زخم النمو وضغوط التضخم في الحسبان. وقال نائب رئيس الوزراء ووزير المالية لي هيونغ إيل في 16 أكتوبر إن نمو الناتج المحلي الإجمالي الحقيقي لهذا العام قد يصل إلى 3.6%. وهذا أعلى من توقع بنك كوريا البالغ 3.3% في أغسطس. كما بلغ فائض الحساب الجاري خلال الفترة من يناير إلى أغسطس 279.2 مليار دولار، أي نحو أربعة أمثال مستواه المسجل قبل عام.

ارتفعت الأسهم الأمريكية على نطاق واسع بعدما حققت سبيس إكس أرباحًا، ورفعت شركة مصنّعة لخوادم الذكاء الاصطناعي توقعاتها للمبيعات. وساعدت عمليات الشراء في أسهم أشباه الموصلات والخوادم على دفع مؤشر ناسداك المركب للارتفاع بأكثر من 1%.
في 21 أكتوبر، أغلق مؤشر ناسداك المركب مرتفعًا 278.04 نقطة، أو 1.05%، عند 26,702.86 في نيويورك. وصعد مؤشر داو جونز الصناعي 360.21 نقطة، أو 0.69%، إلى 52,856.09، فيما ارتفع مؤشر S&P 500 بمقدار 44.60 نقطة، أو 0.58%، إلى 7,757.17.
قفز سهم سبيس إكس 7.79% بعد يوم من إعلان الشركة تحقيق أول أرباح لها منذ طرحها للاكتتاب العام. وركز المستثمرون أيضًا على تصريح الرئيس التنفيذي إيلون ماسك بأن الاندماج مع تسلا سيكون «فكرة جيدة». وارتفعت أسهم تسلا 3.41%.

Won-denominated stablecoins and preparations for virtual-asset taxation are emerging as major legislative priorities for South Korea’s National Assembly next month. Lawmakers must set the rules for companies to operate and establish the framework for investors to pay taxes, making debate over a Digital Asset Basic Act and tax policy a turning point for the domestic digital-asset market.
The National Assembly’s Political Affairs Committee plans to begin reviewing the Digital Asset Basic Act at a bill-review subcommittee next month, with the goal of passing it within the year. A tax subcommittee under the committee handling fiscal and economic planning will also discuss the timing of virtual-asset taxation, which is scheduled to take effect in January. One track centers on market regulation and the other on taxes, but both address the broader task of bringing the market into the formal system.
The government is also emphasizing the link between the two issues. Kwon Dae-young, first vice minister of economy and finance, told a meeting of industry officials and experts on Oct. 20 that tax principles can take root in the market only if tax infrastructure and a market-regulation framework are put in place together. The comment suggests authorities see tools to track transactions and secure market trust as essential before taxes are imposed.
For won stablecoins, the central issue is an issuance structure that combines financial stability with private-sector business capacity. One option under discussion would require banks to hold at least 50% plus one share in a consortium, while fintech companies argue that non-bank firms also need room to participate. A key question is how to make use of technological capabilities and distribution networks as authorities define issuance eligibility and governance rules.
Shin Hyun-song, governor of the Bank of Korea, said at a parliamentary audit on Oct. 12 that he is “basically in favor” of private issuance. Financial Services Commission Chairman Lee Eok-won said on Oct. 8 that authorities would move quickly in consultations to prepare how to guide the industry and the broader market. Abroad, KRWQ, a won-pegged token launched in October 2025, is already in circulation, underscoring the need to create an institutional path for domestic projects.
On taxation, the key issue is how fairly and accurately authorities can track domestic and overseas transactions. Limits on securing records of offshore trading and the absence of loss carryforward deductions are among the issues cited for improvement. Under the current timetable, starting next year, authorities would impose a 22% tax, including local taxes, on annual virtual-asset income above 2.5 million won ($1,800).
Lawmakers in both the ruling and opposition parties are continuing to push for an adjustment to the implementation schedule based on the state of preparations. Park Min-gyu of the Democratic Party proposed an amendment to delay taxation until 2029, citing the US timetable for joining the Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework, or CARF, for automatic information exchange. Park Soo-young of the People Power Party said on Oct. 21 that authorities should not “kick away the ladder” for young people trying to build wealth, adding that he would pursue bipartisan talks on a delay. The government has yet to set out a final position.
The Political Affairs Committee is expected to discuss issuers and business requirements for won stablecoins as part of its review of the basic law next month. The tax subcommittee under the fiscal and economic planning committee will examine proposals to adjust the start date for taxation. The detailed timetable for institutionalization will hinge on when the government submits its proposal and the outcome of talks between the two parties.

President Donald Trump said he plans to spend more than $400 million before next month's Nov. 3 midterm elections, ramping up rallies and advertising in battleground states as Republicans fight to hold their Senate majority.
Trump wrote on Truth Social on Oct. 20 that more than $400 million would be spent by Election Day. Pro-Trump super PACs, including MAGA Inc., have already poured in more than $200 million since September, and about another $200 million remains, according to the article.
The Republican defensive strategy is focused on Senate battleground states. While Democrats are forecast to have the edge in the House, the Senate could be split 50-50 between the two parties. In that scenario, Republicans would retain control through the vice president's tie-breaking vote. If Democrats win 51 seats, they would take control of the Senate.
Trump is scheduled to visit Kansas, Iowa and Florida this week, followed by campaign stops in Georgia and Michigan next week. He also plans to return to Texas before the election. Ad spending is likewise being concentrated in other battlegrounds seen as more winnable than North Carolina.
Trump has also repeatedly pushed a cash-payment pledge aimed at voters. He promised to give $5,000 to every adult, though the proposal's feasibility has been questioned because the total cost would come to about $1.3 trillion. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is also joining campaign events and announcing major investment plans.
In the poll cited in the article, Trump's job approval rating stood at 31%, down 1 percentage point from two weeks earlier. Voter preference by party was 47% for Democrats and 35% for Republicans. Still, those figures alone are not enough to determine the election outcome because details such as the polling firm and survey period were not provided.

قفزت أسهم SpaceX، شركة الفضاء التي يقودها إيلون ماسك، الرئيس التنفيذي لشركة Tesla، في التداولات المبكرة.
جرى تداول أسهم SpaceX عند نحو 165 دولارًا في 21 أكتوبر، بارتفاع يقارب 12% مقارنة بالجلسة السابقة، وفقًا لـTradingView. وسجل السهم بذلك أول مكسب يتجاوز 10% منذ نحو شهرين، أي منذ أغسطس.
جاء هذا الارتفاع عقب إعلان نتائج الربع الثالث، وأخبار تفيد بأن الشركة تدرس الاندماج مع Tesla. وقالت SpaceX في 20 أكتوبر إن صافي دخلها في الربع الثالث بلغ 4.4 مليار دولار، أي أكثر من ضعف توقعات السوق البالغة 1.88 مليار دولار.

سيقيّم مكتب مراقب العملة مدى قانونية برامج مكافآت العملات المستقرة كل حالة على حدة.
أفادت CoinDesk في 21 أكتوبر بأن مكتب مراقب العملة أصدر في ذلك اليوم القاعدة النهائية لتنفيذ قانون GENIUS، وهو قانون العملات المستقرة في الولايات المتحدة. وستدخل القاعدة حيز التنفيذ في 18 يناير 2027.
المسألة الرئيسية هي مكافآت العملات المستقرة. ويحظر قانون GENIUS على الجهات المُصدرة دفع فوائد أو عوائد أخرى للعملاء لمجرد حيازتهم عملات مستقرة مخصصة للمدفوعات أو استخدامها أو الاحتفاظ بها.
قال مكتب مراقب العملة إنه سيطبق القانون استنادًا إلى وقائع وظروف كل برنامج مكافآت على حدة. وقد يُسمح ببعض المكافآت إذا دُفع جزء من المقابل لأسباب أخرى غير الأسباب المحظورة صراحةً بموجب قانون GENIUS. ولم تقدم الوكالة أمثلة محددة على هياكل المكافآت المسموح بها أو المحظورة.

أكملت SK Hynix إعادة شراء أسهم بقيمة 28.9 مليار دولار.
وقالت الشركة في 21 أكتوبر إنها أنهت خلال الشهرين الماضيين إعادة شراء أسهمها بقيمة 28.9 مليار دولار في سوق كوسبي الكورية الجنوبية.
وكانت SK Hynix قد قالت سابقًا إنها ستنفق نحو 28.9 مليار دولار لإعادة شراء 24.07 مليون سهم وإلغائها جميعًا. وتمثل هذه الأسهم البالغ عددها 24.07 مليون نحو 3.3% من إجمالي أسهم الشركة القائمة، ما يجعل هذه العملية واحدة من أكبر عمليات إلغاء أسهم الخزينة التي تنفذها شركة كورية جنوبية مدرجة.
كانت SK Hynix قد أعلنت في الأصل أن فترة إعادة شراء الأسهم ستمتد من 20 أغسطس إلى 19 نوفمبر. واكتملت عملية إعادة الشراء قبل الموعد المحدد بنحو شهر.

Binance.US, the US arm of global cryptocurrency exchange Binance, is seeking to enter the domestic prediction market.
The Financial Times reported on October 21 that Binance.US recently applied to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission for authorization to offer prediction market services. The newspaper also reported that Blockchain.com, a UK crypto company, filed for the same approval last week.
Crypto firms have been accelerating their push into prediction markets. Bullish, a US cryptocurrency exchange, recently applied to the CFTC for approval to offer prediction market services. Coinbase partnered with Kalshi earlier this year.
The prediction market industry is growing rapidly. Combined monthly trading volume at Kalshi and Polymarket jumped more than fourfold to $72 billion in September from $17 billion in January, according to The Block. By contrast, spot cryptocurrency trading volume fell 18% over the same period.
"Retail-focused platforms are broadening their product offerings to retain existing customers and attract new ones," Patrick Moley, a senior research analyst at Piper Sandler, said. He added that offering other products helps companies weather the "crypto winter."

South Korea’s People Power Party plans to hold talks with the Democratic Party on delaying taxation of virtual assets, or cryptocurrencies, scheduled to take effect in January 2027.
Digital Asset reported on October 21 that Park Soo-young, deputy policy committee chair of the People Power Party, made the remarks to reporters after a press conference at the National Assembly Communication Hall in Seoul’s Yeouido district.
He was cautious about the chances of a bipartisan agreement. Although a bill to postpone the tax has also been proposed within the Democratic Party, the party has not yet adopted an official position. Park said it was still difficult to predict what conclusion would emerge from the bill review scheduled for November.
The People Power Party cited the state of preparedness of the tax system and fairness relative to other financial assets as the main issues. It argues that pushing ahead with taxation on crypto income after scrapping the financial investment income tax would be inequitable. The party also said a delay was needed because tax standards, revenue estimates and exchange systems related to the levy were not yet fully in place.
Park held the press conference with six young crypto investors who called for a postponement. He said the Democratic Party should also take their concerns into account and discuss securing additional time to refine the system, rather than enforcing the tax before institutional preparations are complete.
Cho Sang-hyuk, attending as a representative of the young investors, said they were not opposing taxation itself. He said institutional improvements should come first to ensure fair tax payments. Cho called for the start of the tax to be delayed by at least two years so the framework could be strengthened, including loss carryforwards, profit-and-loss offsetting and basic deductions.
With lawmakers from both the ruling and opposition parties having introduced bills to defer the crypto tax, the preparedness of the tax infrastructure and fairness among investors are set to be major issues in the upcoming legislative review process.

اقترب سعر بيتكوين من 83,000 دولار، مع تحسن الإقبال على الأصول عالية المخاطر بفضل النتائج القوية لشركات التكنولوجيا الأمريكية.
جرى تداول بيتكوين عند نحو 82,700 دولار خلال ساعات التداول الآسيوية في 21 أكتوبر، مرتفعًا بنسبة 1.3%، وفقًا لما ذكره موقع CoinDesk. وأعادت النتائج القوية لشركتي SpaceX وSuper Micro Computer إحياء الحماس للاستثمارات المرتبطة بالذكاء الاصطناعي، ما رفع أسهم الأسواق الآسيوية والأصول الرقمية.
من بين العملات المشفرة الرئيسية، سجلت Zcash أكبر مكسب. فقد قفزت بنسبة 11% إلى نحو 1,260 دولارًا بعد تحديد ارتفاع كتلة التفعيل لترقيتها الشبكية التالية، NU7. وستقلص الترقية زمن إنشاء الكتلة من 75 ثانية إلى 25 ثانية، ما يضاعف سرعة تأكيد المعاملات ثلاث مرات. كما ستخصص 60% من رسوم المعاملات للاحتياطيات، لتوزيعها على مراحل. وتعمل الترقية على شبكة الاختبار منذ أوائل أكتوبر.

واصلت صناديق بيتكوين الفورية المتداولة في البورصة بالولايات المتحدة تسجيل تدفقات داخلة صافية.
وفقًا لـ Trader T في 21 أكتوبر، سجلت صناديق بيتكوين الفورية الـ12 المتداولة في البورصة بالولايات المتحدة تدفقات داخلة صافية مجمعة بقيمة 23.19 مليون دولار في الجلسة السابقة. ويمثل ذلك ثاني يوم تداول متتالٍ من التدفقات الداخلة الصافية.
تصدّر صندوق IBIT التابع لشركة BlackRock التدفقات الداخلة بقيمة 29.9 مليون دولار. وأضاف صندوق FBTC التابع لشركة Fidelity مبلغ 3.58 ملايين دولار.
في المقابل، سجل صندوق BITB التابع لشركة Bitwise تدفقات خارجة بقيمة 10.29 ملايين دولار. ولم تسجل المنتجات المتبقية أي تدفقات صافية. وعلى الرغم من التدفقات الداخلة خلال اليوم، ظلت التدفقات التراكمية لشهر أكتوبر سلبية. وسجلت صناديق بيتكوين الفورية المتداولة في البورصة بالولايات المتحدة تدفقات خارجة صافية بقيمة 65.1 مليون دولار منذ بداية الشهر.

South Korea’s National Assembly Strategy and Finance Committee, reviewing a public petition to abolish taxation on virtual assets due to take effect in January, said reversing course again could undermine the credibility of tax policy.
A review report on the petition, released on October 21, said the committee examined the issue in terms of tax fairness, investor protection and market impact. The petition was referred to parliament in May after receiving 50,910 signatures. Petitioners argued that it is unreasonable to tax only virtual-asset income after the financial investment income tax was scrapped, and called for the system to be abolished.
The report highlighted that the virtual-asset tax has already been postponed three times. Scrapping a tax regime originally set for introduction in 2022 could weaken the consistency of earlier legislative decisions, it said. Reversing a tax policy finalized through discussions including the National Assembly’s tax subcommittee could also erode confidence in policy and create instability in the crypto market.
Still, the committee found some merit in investors’ concerns over tax fairness. General capital gains on domestically listed shares are typically exempt from tax, while income from virtual assets would be taxed after an annual basic deduction of 2.5 million won. Even so, the report said it may not be appropriate to assess virtual-asset taxation as directly linked to the abolished financial investment income tax. It added that whether the crypto market should receive the same policy support as the stock market requires separate discussion.
The committee also reviewed concerns about the potential impact on market activity and on younger investors’ ability to build assets. Data from the Korea Financial Intelligence Unit showed the domestic virtual-asset market’s capitalization totaled 87.2 trillion won in the second half of last year, down 21.1% from a year earlier. The report acknowledged that implementing the tax could weigh on investor sentiment and burden younger investors seeking to build wealth. But it said further judgment is needed to determine whether that justifies abolishing the tax itself.
On loss carryforwards, the report stressed that the policy rationale for the financial investment income tax differed from that for virtual-asset taxation. Under the virtual-asset tax regime, only gains and losses generated within the same year can be netted out, meaning losses from previous years cannot be deducted from profits in later years. By contrast, the now-abolished financial investment income tax allowed loss carryforwards for up to five years to foster risk capital. The report said that system was not adopted for virtual assets because of concerns over encouraging speculative trading.
The government told parliament it is strengthening the information-gathering systems needed to enforce the tax. The Ministry of Economy and Finance plans to launch an integrated analysis system for virtual-asset transaction data by the end of this year. Starting in 2027, it also plans to obtain overseas transaction data through the Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework, or CARF. On that basis, the government said taxation of domestic and overseas virtual-asset transactions can proceed as scheduled.
Separate bills are pending in the National Assembly, including one from lawmaker Song Eon-seok that would abolish the virtual-asset tax and others from lawmakers Jeong Seong-guk, Kim Sang-hoon and Park Min-gyu that seek to delay implementation. The committee is set to address issues related to virtual-asset taxation during a comprehensive parliamentary audit of the Ministry of Economy and Finance and the National Tax Service on October 22.