About one million South Koreans, many of them small-time investors, are estimated to own Bitcoins, and demand is so high that prices for the unit are around 20 percent higher than in the US, its biggest market.

South Korea on Wednesday banned its financial institutions from dealing in virtual currencies such as Bitcoin, as the cryptocurrency soars in a bubble fuelled by retail speculators, many of them from the country.

And at the weekend futures trading in the digital currency started on the Chicago Board Options Exchange, the first time it has appeared on a traditional platform. It is also expected to list on the rival Chicago Mercantile Exchange next week.

SEOUL, Dec 13 (Reuters) – South Korea on Wednesday said it will consider taxing capital gains from trading of virtual coins, a government statement obtained by Reuters ahead of an official release showed.

LONDON/NEW YORK, Dec 7 (Reuters) – Bitcoin rocketed to a lifetime high well above $16,000 on Thursday after climbing some 67 percent over one week, intensifying the debate about whether the cryptocurrency is in a bubble about to burst.

The Korea Blockchain Industry Association said in a statement users would only be allowed to trade virtual currency through one account after their identity has been confirmed via traditional financial institutions like banks.

MyEtherWallet spokesman Jordan Spence said the developer had not detected signs that the iOS app was used to steal from people who had downloaded it, but that the team was still investigating to verify that. (Reporting by Jim Finkle in Toronto; Editing by Richard Chang)

The market for ICOs has grown exponentially this year with some firms using the fundraising method to raise millions of dollars in minutes without offering an actual product. As such, many Wall Streeters are calling the market a bubble.

Interest in cryptocurrencies has climbed in recent weeks as the bitcoin has repeatedly hit new highs, bringing its year-to-date return to 1,600 percent. The currency’s surge has also generated the interest of scammers, who last week stole more than $60 million worth of bitcoin from the Slovenia-based cryptocurrency mining marketplace NiceHash.

The statement added virtual currency exchanges with more than 2 billion won ($1.83 million) worth in assets would be allowed to operate. Measures, which are not mandatory, will start being imposed beginning Jan. 1 next year, the country’s only association for virtual currency exchanges said.

But critics say that the price run-up is a bubble that has been driven mostly by speculation, leaving bitcoin vulnerable to a sharp reversal. JPMorgan Chase Additional reporting by Daniel Bases; Editing by Abhinav Ramnarayan and Meredith Mazzilli)

Proponents say bitcoin is a good medium of exchange and a way to store value, much like a precious metal. They also argue it is preferable to traditional currencies because it is not subject to central bank manipulation.

SEOUL, Dec 15 (Reuters) – A South Korean blockchain association announced on Friday measures to boost transparency in trading of cryptocurrencies, agreed by 14 exchanges in the country including the world’s busiest virtual currency exchange, Bitthumb.

On Monday morning in Beijing, a slew of Chinese regulatory agencies released a joint statement

in which they affirmed that initial coin ico (http://www.l-appartamento.com) offerings (ICOs), a cryptocurrency-based fundraising method, are illegal in the country.

Dec 11 (Reuters) – IPhone maker Apple Inc said on Monday it had removed a paid iOS application from its App Store after MyEtherWallet, a free service for storing digital currencies, complained that the program was improperly using its name.

The statement was a response to a tweet by someone identified as @ChrisLundkvist, who posted an image of the $4.99 app, dubbed MyEtherWallet, showing it was the third-most popular finance app in Apple’s App Store.

Drawn by bitcoin’s explosive surge of more than 15-fold this year, ordinary South Koreans from housewives to college students and office workers have rushed to mobile-app based virtual currency exdchanges in hopes of quick profits despite government-issued warnings.

“Today’s announcement is unlikely to affect the (bitcoin) price as exchanges can always decide not to follow,” said Park Nok-sun, a cryptocurrency analyst at NH Investment Editing by Sam Holmes, Christine Kim)

“The regulations will ensure the safety of consumers and transparency in trade and are expected to be the strongest and most effective measures (regarding virtual currency exchanges) on a global scale,” said the statement.