South Korea to Make Officials’ Crypto Disclosures Public

South Korea is making crypto and other asset holdings of approximately 5,800 public officials available to the public under new legislation aimed at increasing transparency.

Starting next year, public officials will be provided with an integrated asset disclosure service, South Korea’s Ethics Policy Division said in a post on Wednesday. While asset disclosures are currently reported in official gazettes, under the new legislation, the information will be available through the Public Official Ethics System (PETI).

New laws requiring public officials to disclose their crypto holdings were passed in May following a high-profile scandal involving a lawmaker.

“We expect that the transparency of the public service community will be further increased through the implementation of an integrated service for public official property disclosure and property registration of virtual assets,” Kim Seung-ho, director of personnel management, said in Wednesday’s post.

Starting June 2024, crypto exchanges Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit and Gopax plan on having information provision systems to help track holdings, the announcement added.