South Korea finally ends 9-year ban on bitcoin and altcoins

Honestly, I’m not shocked by the market surge. But this is definitely great news for the whole crypto scene, as it could push bitcoin prices to new heights. Who knows, maybe this is what triggered the sudden market uptick after South Korea lifted the crypto ban. Big shoutout to South Koreans for this change, and we’re all eager to see how it positively affects the crypto market overall. You can find more info about South Korea's crypto ban being lifted on Binance. There’s also another piece on Kucoin regarding South Korea’s decision to allow bitcoin and other cryptos again. If there’s already a thread on this, just let me know and I’ll happily lock this one. And if this isn’t the right spot for it, just point me in the right direction.

Maybe the title is misleading? What was lifted was the ban on corporate companies from investing on crypto. And so with this news South Korean companies will have a chance to invest, but they will have to be cap at 5% to of their shareholder equity to coins and it will be within the top 20 coins by market cap. And they can only invest country’s five largest regulated exchanges, namely Upbit (https://upbit.com/)Bithumb (https://www.bithumb.com/)Korbit (https://www.korbit.co.kr/)INEX (https://www.inexcoin.com)Coinone (https://coinone.co.kr/) Most likely the FSB might have give in to the fact that many corporations around the world are putting Bitcoin in their ledger and so they allow it this 2026. This is welcoming news as it might open floodgates of investment from South Korea, the only catch is that they have a limit of only 5%.

i was confused as i previously remember reading some news before of south korea's involvement with crypto an article from 2025 presents results from a survey which found that 27% of south koreans are holding crypto their ages ranging from 20-50 years old and the total value of crypto held on their top 5 exchanges surpassed 100 trillion won or about 73 billion usd so south korea has always been a broad market for crypto but it is just now that they are expanding it even more

South Korea is lifting the ban to only allow the people and corporate bodies engage for the use of bitcoin, which is a fair consideration for now, we should hope for something more softer later in the future, as anything is possible, but as for this one, we should know that the government will benefits form this than the concerned platforms being mentioned, because of the regulations they cant escape.

The use of cryptocurrencies was not outrightly banned in South Korea. The government just lifted a ban on corporate investments in cryptocurrencies. Companies can now invest as high as 5% of their equity in cryptos. The government is simply trying to correct their mistakes. Such laws will make the country lose investment opportunities. At a time when the US and other countries are promoting public exposure to the crypto market, restricting it will lead to serious capital flight.  it a good news that could promote the crypto sector in that country. The people of South Korea were not banned from dealing in Bitcoin. It was only corporate bodies that were restricted from investing in digital assets.

That is not really much, but it should be enough for bitcoin. Then the country spent 9 years trying to control bitcoin, and now they realized this is not possible. If they started earlier, they would be richer now, or the people in their country would be rich. Well, there are many other countries that are making this mistake. I hope more people understand this in the future. The 5% line must be set higher in the future.

Were the people themselves banned, though? I don't think so, need to check the rest of the info.

It is good to read news in full, I am very surprised when I saw this news. This is because South Korea did not ban bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. But since 2017, publicly listed companies and registered professional investors are not allowed to invest in bitcoin but this was lifted on January 2010 which was 4 days ago and what that this thread should be about.

I am glad people didn't go through the regulation hell themselves, loopholes would be found anyways.. It would only a matter of time for the uplift of such a ban.

From what I am seeing right away, now that the cooperate sectors are venturing into Bitcoin investment it would give a nice move for the Bitcoin growth. Although as then who knows if they were actually doing their investments underways and since the government ban it, individualistic can actually engage in their own investment without having those cooperate bodies or companies invested. Again, seems like your title aren't supposed to be captioned that way.

5% of equity is still a very large amount if we look at the large companies and institutional investors of South Korea. The investment is limited to the top coins by marketcap but this is just a start. The limitation of exchange don't matter as the coins liquidity revolves around every exchanges. More than the short term price boost, we would have more long term implications bringing more traditional investors into crypto directly or indirectly through different funds and freezing of more crypto which would make the price appreciate more.

Thanks for clearing this out as you saved me some time on searching that when did they banned crypto in south korea as all this time I am hearing the steps they took in this file dot adopt it more and how can they be making these steps if they are banned but after reading the post I realize they are allowing companies and then you cleared it more. Well this is a good news because this is just one step and we know in the future they are going to take bigger ones like increasing or lifting this limiations or giving them motivation as well.

Adoption goes forward and that's clearly a good sign. More countries understand the drill and start building the rails on which the infra for institutions / companies alike starts to arise.

This is very hard to believe because few projects with Korea developers came to the spotlight between 2022 and 2025, what. Is this all about? It is not accurate at all, it was like there is no bans to be lifted already.

Yeah, they're right that crypto isn't really banned in there. I remember I think it was last year when there was a crack down not with crypto but with the privacy coins. Exchanges from there have banned their listings and as well as delisted them due to the government's pressure. I wonder if allows them to re-list the privacy coins or they're not part of this news.

That five percent limit is obviously the result of politicians and economists from South Korea which may be afraid of their economy getting volatile in the case of having major companies investing much of their equity and capital in a market so volatile as Cryptocurrencies are. They probably have cases like Terra-Luna in mind, which was a Top 10 blue chip crypto currency which was deemed too big to fail... And called anyways, taking the money of millions with it. Considering the creator of Terra Luna is also native from South Korea, there is no guess why South Korea is proceeding with caution in this matter. It is a good first step, there is no doubt about it, but there is still a long path ahead before all south Asia see actual freedom to do whatever they want with their wealth and digital assets.

Yeah, we can take it positively for as long as they're easing a bit of it. We will accept that. Or there is really no need to accept that I guess because we're seeing the shift and most countries are showing their involvement in the market. We want it to be in mainstream and it should hit Bitcoin as their option. We'll get to see if more changes will be done by the South Korean government.

Thanks for pointing out the real information. I really love the instructions on these corporate companies to only invest in top 20 coins from coin market cap and only in Korea crypto exchange, nothing else. That's absolutely protective from all kinds of negative market outbreak, because coins below this range aren't trustworthy and can generate income over time, top 20 coins are really good for long term investment and can be able to recover faster if market market dumps heavily.

Yeah, but if you look at let's say another Southeast Asian nation like Japan, let's say MetaPlanet, https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2025/12/30/metaplanet-buys-4-279-bitcoin-lifts-total-holdings-to-35-102-btc We will see then which biggest company will have Bitcoin in their balance sheet. Because if they did, then it's going to be a big boost in the price. Specially right now that it's < 6 digit, this is a perfect opportunity for companies in South Korea to invest.

South korea is a big market, there is routine crypto conference being held in there and some of the biggest exchange is upbit and bithumb. A very good and growing market in there. If their institution which oversee their economic by large amount is open to diversfiying to bitcoin, that will be game changer. Imagine samsung and sk hynix creating division for crypto and even investing in it. I think in this case japan gonna make a big mistake limiting corporate exposure to crypto. Their yen has been quite weak for a while. They gotta do something and south korea is already doing something now. Seems japan's lost decades will continue.