Bitcoin CRACKDOWN: Cryptocurrency regulation boss suddenly DIES at home in South Korea
Jung Ki-joon, Head of the Economic Policy Coordination Office for the South Korean Government, is thought to have suffered a heart attack while sleeping on Saturday night and was not found until his family went to wake him up on Sunday morning.
The exact cause of his death cannot be confirmed until the police get a report from the coroner’s office.
Mr Jung had been handed a new job leading the Seoul crack down on the cryptocurrency industry near the end of last year.
Just last month South Korea introduced a raft of measures aimed at regulating Bitcoin and similar currencies such as Ripple and Ethereum.
A ban on anonymous trading was implemented in the hope of reducing possible criminal activities the secret nature of trading Bitcoin had previously allowed.
Mr Jung was in charge of coordinating the opinions of different ministries and offices within the Government on cryptocurrency regulations.
The potential of regulation of online money caused a sudden plunge in the value of Bitcoin in January.
The original digital currency’s value hit an all-time high of £13991.86 ($19,535.70) on December 17 last year.
However, it then dropped to as low as just £7,064 ($10,035) on January 30.
In a controversial announcement, Mr Jung admitted the government was considering a law to close all the nation’s cryptocurrency exchanges.
He said: “The proposed shutdown of exchanges that the justice minister mentioned recently is one of the measures suggested by the justice ministry to curb speculation.”
South Korean leaders announced in the final months of last year that they would undergo a long period of consideration over the perceived threats that digital assets could pose to national economic stability.
Colleagues of Mr Jung have been reported claiming Mr Jung that stress may have been a contributing factor to his death.
South Korea was one of the first countries to decide to regulate cryptocurrencies.
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