Starting this year, almost 6,000 South Korean officials will be obliged to publicly disclose their crypto holdings. The country’s Ministry of Personnel Management said on Dec. 27 2023 that information about government officials’ private holdings of crypto assets will be included in the Public Official Ethics System.
Previously, some Korean civil servants disclosed their crypto holdings in the government’s official gazette or on the websites of ministries or parliamentary chambers, but with the Public Official Ethics System, Korean citizens will get access to at least 5,800 officials’ declarations this 2024.
From June 2024, five major South Korean crypto exchanges — Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit and Gopax — will launch separate “information provision systems,” simplifying the registration of information about crypto holdings.
In May 2023, a member of the Democratic Party, Kim Nam-kuk, came under fire when he was found to have once held at least $4.5 million in Wemix (WEMIX) tokens developed by the South Korean blockchain game developer Wemade. Kim’s ownership of Wemix spurred significant concerns over potential conflicts of interest, using insider information and even money laundering.
In reaction to the incident, South Korea’s National Assembly amended the National Assembly Act and the Public Service Ethics Act when it voted unanimously for civil servants’ mandatory disclosure of crypto assets.
In November 2023, the Democratic Party of Korea, which holds 167 out of 300 seats in the National Assembly, obliged its prospective candidates to disclose their digital asset holdings on their party profiles as well.
