How to Protect Financial Consumers in Virtual Asset Markets? Issues in Korea

This paper is concerned with appropriate regulatory remedies to manage and control the overheated speculation and sig nificant fraudulent a ctivities in v irtual a sset markets i n Korea. The c ryptocurrency market h as g rown l ike skyrockets in size as measured by market capitalization and trading volume, particularly during this COVID-19 pandemic period. As the market has been growing too fast, regulatory responses haven’t been prepared and applied to the market in a timely matter, and a lot of speculative and fraudulent activities have risen under the regulatory shadow. In order to make the market develop soundly with integrity, appropriate regulatory measures should be introduced including externality checks and controls, securities and financial conduct regulations, strict investor identification, financial education, and financial consumer protection like in other banking and securities services.