South Korea considers Bitcoin trading ban

South Korea is banning cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin being traded on local exchanges.

Justice Minister Park Sang-ki said the ministry is preparing a bill to ban virtual currencies.

However, South Korea's presidential office said later that a ban had not yet been finalized.

The local Bitcoin price fell by a fifth after the justice minister's comments.

In South Korea it trades at approximately 30% premium compared to other countries.

There is no fixed price for Bitcoin as it is not regulated and is traded on dozens of exchanges worldwide.

According to the report given by Coindesk.com, the price of Bitcoin was about 8% lower at just under $13,800 on Thursday afternoon.

South Korea has an accounting for about 20% of global Bitcoin transactions.

According to the Korea Blockchain Industry Association, It has more than a dozen cryptocurrency exchanges.

Including country's second-largest virtual currency operator (Bithumb) , many were raided this week in a probe into alleged tax evasion.

The government had already said in December that it would apply more scrutiny to the exchanges.