The market for digital coins was under intense pressure Thursday morning amid reports that South Korea had a bill in the works to ban cryptocurrency trading.
"South Korea's justice minister said on Thursday the ministry is preparing a bill to ban cryptocurrency trading through its exchanges," Reuters reported.
That news was on the heels of a report that authorities were raiding cryptocurrency exchanges in the country.
“A few officials from the National Tax Service raided our office this week,” an representative of Coinone, a South Korean crypto exchange, told Reuters.
According to the Reuters report, South Korean authorities also were looking into Bithumb, another cryptocurrency exchange.
At the time of print, bitcoin was trading down more than 11% at $13,415 a coin, according to data from Markets Insider. In total, the entire cryptocurrency market was down more than $100 billion at $636 billion. It hit an all-time high of $830 billion earlier this month, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
The news of the crackdown follows a Wall Street Journal report Monday that regulators in South Korea were preparing a wide-ranging inspection on six commercial banks that manage "virtual" bitcoin accounts. Virtual accounts, according to The Journal, are where investors can store fiat money when they buy or sell crypto.
“There is growing concern that banks, which should actively act as gatekeepers to prevent the distribution of crime and illegal funds, are aiding and encouraging them,” Choi Jong-ku, head of South Korea’s Financial Services Commission, said.
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