The National Assembly of South Korea on June 30, 2023 passed the Virtual Asset User Protection Act. The legislation, which was presented in the form of a Bill aims to regulate unfair trade practices and protect crypto investors.
The legislation integrates 19 crypto-related Bills, thus providing a unified Bill defining all digital assets. It also imposes penalties for illicit trading activities along with liabilities for damages caused by unfair trading, such as using undisclosed information, market manipulation and other unfair trading practices in crypto, local news agency SBS Biz reported.
According to local media reports, the main point of the Virtual Asset User Protection Act is to apply South Korea’s Capital Market Act to virtual assets with a securities nature.
With the passing of this legislation, virtual asset service providers (VASPs) in South Korea will now have to take responsibility for users’ deposits as well as provide insurance against risks, such as hacks, computer failure and others.
NZ’s Central Bank Ramps Up Crypto Monitoring
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand is ramping up its monitoring of Stablecoins and crypto-assets following public submissions, but has stopped short of calling for a regulatory approach.
Ian Woolford, director of money and cash, Reserve Bank of New Zealand, said in a statement on June 30, 2023 that the central bank agrees that “a regulatory approach isn’t needed right now, but increased vigilance is,” Cointelegraph.com reported.
Previously, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand had posted a question on Twitter asking people to voice their opinion on crypto regulation.
“New forms of money, such as crypto and stablecoins create opportunities and risks for New Zealanders and the financial system. Have your say now on these and how we should respond,” Reserve Bank of New Zealand said in a Tweet.
Following the submissions, Woolford said crypto had “significant risks and opportunities” along with “uncertainties” about the sector’s development which gave it the need for extra attention.
“We agree that caution is needed, which also reinforces the need for enhanced data and monitoring to build understanding,” he added.
Coinbase Layer-2 Network’s Base One Step Far From Mainnet Launch
Base, a new layer-2 application-focused protocol by Coinbase, has just one criterion left to fulfil before being ready for the mainnet launch.
The team said in a brief on June 29, 2023 that the Ethereum-secured network has been subject to six months of rigorous security audits, both internally and externally, and they feel extremely confident after not finding any critical code bugs in the tests.
“With the completion of these audits, we’ve now fulfilled four-fifth of our criteria for mainnet launch. Completing these in-depth security workstreams without discovering critical severity bugs gave the Base team confidence to proceed towards mainnet launch,” the team said.
