Even if you send coins overseas once, you can report them every month… Han said, “Confirmed after discussion” (comprehensive)

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Lee Do-heun = The Bank of Korea is causing controversy by pushing for a plan to require users with past overseas transfers of virtual assets to report on a monthly basis the balance of their domestic virtual assets.

The Bank of Korea announced that it is discussing the final reporting form after consulting with virtual asset operators and related organizations.

According to the 'Foreign Exchange Network Reporting Manual for Virtual Asset Transferors' obtained by Park Soo-young, a People Power Party member of the National Assembly's Finance and Economic Planning Committee, on the 23rd, the Bank of Korea is preparing a transaction information reporting system to prevent illegal foreign exchange transactions through cross-border virtual asset transfers.

This is part of measures to strengthen monitoring of cross-border virtual asset transfers following the enforcement of the revised Foreign Exchange Transactions Act on December 3.

The government plans to report virtual asset transfer details to the Bank of Korea, a foreign exchange information concentration agency, and share related information with the National Tax Service, Korea Customs Service, Financial Supervisory Service, and Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) for use in investigating illegal foreign exchange transactions.

According to the handbook delivered by the Bank of Korea to the Digital Asset Exchange Joint Advisory Group (DAXA) on the 2nd, virtual asset exchanges must report to the Bank of Korea the details of the outflow and inflow of virtual assets that were traded on the same day by 11 a.m. the next day. The sender/receiver, transaction details, resident registration number, etc. are subject to reporting.

A monthly balance report containing the virtual asset holder's personal information and holding balance must also be submitted.

The Bank of Korea has decided that if there is at least one virtual asset transfer transaction after July 19, 2024, it will be included in the report. Balance reporting also includes dormant accounts, delisted virtual assets, and staking assets.

The Bank of Korea's position is that the submitted handbook is a kind of draft, and that the final draft will be finalized after discussion with relevant officials.

An official from the Bank of Korea said, "We are re-discussing how to include businesses with a transaction history in the reporting target from December of this year, when the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act was implemented."

Regarding the scope of disclosure of monthly balance reports, he explained, "We are looking for a direction that can achieve a balance between the purpose of the law revision and monitoring effectiveness while alleviating the burden on virtual asset business operators." The Bank of Korea plans to finalize the relevant final reporting form within next month.

According to Rep. Park Soo-young, there are a total of 1,272,878 users with a history of cross-border virtual asset transfer transactions on the five major domestic exchanges from July 19, 2024, to September 30, 2026.

Representative Park pointed out, “Looking into all the information of virtual asset users just because they used an overseas transfer transaction is an excessive collection of personal information,” and added, “If personal information, assets, and transaction details are collected excessively in addition to virtual asset taxation, the related market may further shrink.”