South Korea’s Central Bank Downplays Crypto Investment Risk for Domestic Banks

in #mgsc6 years ago

A new report by the Bank of Korea has poured cold water on the perception of cryptocurrencies as a significant share of the deposits held by South Korean banks.

The report, which was released on Friday July 6 placed the December 2017 total outstanding balance of crypto assets in South Korean banks at 2 trillion won (US$1.79 billion), according to local publication Yonhap.

The total share held by crypto assets within the 26 trillion won (US$23.39 billion) total deposit value of South Korean brokerage houses thus comes to 8 percent. The data thus indicates that in spite of vast amounts of market interest in cryptocurrency trading and investment, the actual level of crypto investment being carried out by major financial institutions is still relatively low.

An excerpt from the report reads:

“The amount of crypto-asset investment is not really big, compared with other equity markets, and local financial institutions’ exposure to possible risks of digital assets is insignificant. Against this backdrop, we expect crypto-assets to have a limited impact on the South Korean financial market.”
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