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Over 400 South Korean officials disclose $9.8M in crypto holdings
South Korea’s Ethics Commission revealed that high-ranking public officials in the country hold an average of 35.1 million won ($24,000) in crypto assets.
On March 27, the country’s Ethics Commission for Government Officials reportedly disclosed that more than 20% of the surveyed public officials hold 14.4 billion won ($9.8 million) in crypto. This means 411 of the 2,047 officials subjected to the country’s disclosure requirements hold crypto assets.
The highest amount disclosed was 1.76 billion won ($1.2 million) belonging to Seoul City Councilor Kim Hye-young.
The officials held different crypto assets, including Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), XRP (XRP), Dogecoin (DOGE), Luna Classic (LUNC) and others.
The disclosure of public officials’ crypto assets follows calls for transparency from its prime minister. In 2023, South Korean Prime Minister Han Deok-soo said in a news conference that high-ranking government officials must include crypto in their property disclosures. The official said crypto should be treated similarly to other assets like precious metals. On May 25, 2023, South Korea passed a bill mandating public officials to include crypto in their public asset disclosures. The new system granted South Koreans access to the crypto holdings of at least 5,800 public officials starting in 2024. In June 2024, crypto exchanges in the country launched information provision systems to simplify the registration of information about crypto holdings. Related: South Korea temporarily lifts Upbit’s 3-month ban on serving new clients The new law was created in response to the controversy involving South Korean lawmaker Kim Nam-kuk, who was accused of liquidating crypto assets and concealing holdings of around $4.5 million before lawmakers in the country enforced the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) “Travel Rule.” Kim departed from the Democratic Party at the height of the controversial lawsuit to relieve party members of the burden of the lawsuit. While prosecutors requested a six-month prison sentence for Kim, the lawmaker was eventually acquitted after a judge ruled that crypto assets were not subject to public disclosures at the time Kim made the transactions. Magazine: 3AC-related OX.FUN denies insolvency rumors, Bybit goes to war: Asia Express Tracy Jin, the chief operating officer at the MEXC crypto exchange, warns that tokenizing real-world assets (RWAs) carries a substantial amount of centralized risks that can lead to censorship, liquidity issues, legal uncertainty, cybersecurity problems, and asset confiscation through state or third-party intermediaries. In an interview with Cointelegraph, the executive said that as long as tokenized assets remain under the purview of state regulators and centralized intermediaries, then “tokenization will simply be a new version of old financial infrastructure and not a financial revolution.” Jin added: “Most tokenized assets will be issued on permissioned or semi-centralized blockchains. This gives authorities the power to issue restrictions or confiscate assets. The tokenization of assets such as real estate or bonds is still tied to the national legal system.” “If the property or company behind the token is local, in a country with an unstable legal environment or high political volatility, the risk of confiscation increases,” the executive continued. RWA tokenization is projected to become a multi-trillion sector in the next decade as the world’s assets come onchain, which will increase the velocity of money and extend the reach of capital markets worldwide. The total market cap of the RWA sector. Source: RWA.XYZ Related: Dubai Land Department begins real estate tokenization project Tokenized real-world assets include stocks, bonds, real estate, intellectual property rights, energy, art, private credit, debt instruments, fiat currency, commodities, and collectibles. According to RWA.XYZ, there are currently over $19.6 billion in tokenized real-world assets onchain, excluding the stablecoin sector, which surpassed a $200 billion market cap in December 2024. A research report from Tren Finance polled large financial institutions including Citi, Standard Chartered, and McKinsey & Company; the report found that the participants predicted the RWA market to reach anywhere between $4 trillion to $30 trillion by 2030. Financial institutions provide different forecasts for the future of the tokenized RWA market. Source: Tren Finance McKinsey & Company predicted the RWA sector will encompass between $2 trillion to $4 trillion by 2030 — a relatively modest assessment compared to other forecasts. Meanwhile, institutions like Standard Chartered and executives at the blockchain network Polygon say that the RWA market will reach $30 trillion in the next decade. Magazine: Real-life yield farming: How tokenization is transforming lives in Africa Crypto exchange Binance has debuted centralized exchange (CEX) to decentralized exchange trades (DEX), allowing customers to use funds from their Binance wallets to execute DEX trades — eliminating the need for asset bridging or manual transfers. According to the exchange, customers can use Circle’s USDC (USDC) and other supported stablecoins to acquire tokens on the Ethereum, Solana, Base, and BNB Smart Chain networks. The new CEX to DEX feature is also compatible with other tools on the platform, including Binance Alpha, which gives users the ability to discover emerging tokens in early-stage development, and the Binance quick buy tool. Incorporating CEX to DEX trading unlocks a smoother user experience and reduces the complexity of swapping digital assets. This reduction in complexity addresses the technical barrier to entry inherent in the user experience that makes it difficult for new users to interact with digital assets. Complex user interfaces and clunky user experience is one of the most widely cited issues in crypto. An online meme poking fun at the complexities in crypto. Source: Kev.Eth Related: Web3’s UX problem — and how to fix it, feat. Ponder One In November 2024, The WalletConnect Foundation and Reown established a standard framework for crypto wallets to enhance the user experience and promote ease of use. Pedro Gomes, director of the WalletConnect Foundation, told Cointelegraph that the wallet standards framework focused on several key areas including, “minimizing clicks, reducing transaction friction, interoperability, and providing clear and accessible information.” Anurag Arjun, co-founder of Avail — a unified chain abstraction solution — and the Polygon layer-2 network, also told Cointelegraph that current blockchain abstraction techniques are fragmenting liquidity across the ecosystem. The Polygon co-founder said that each blockchain network has its own set of security assumptions, presenting challenges for interoperability; Arjun specifically cited bridging techniques as cumbersome for the end user. Sandeep Nailwal, who founded Polygon alongside Arjun, recently voiced similar sentiments and said that crypto needs to enhance user experience before achieving mass adoption, likening the current state of crypto to the internet in the late 1990s. Nailwal told Cointelegraph that crypto needs to adopt smoother fiat onboarding, better custody solutions that feature key recovery, and hardware wallets built into mobile devices to bring crypto out of the “AOL era” and achieve mass appeal. Magazine: They solved crypto’s janky UX problem — you just haven’t noticed yet XRP (XRP) has dropped nearly 40% to around $2.19, two months after hitting a multi-year high of $3.40. The cryptocurrency is tracking a broader market sell-off driven by President Donald Trump’s trade war despite bullish news like the SEC dropping its case against Ripple. XRP/USD daily price chart. Source: TradingView However, XRP is still up 350% from its November 2024 low of $0.50, suggesting a consolidation phase after a strong rally. This sideways action has sparked discussions over whether it’s the end of the bull run or a prime buying opportunity. XRP has been consolidating between $1.77 (support) and $3.21 (resistance) since January, with repeated rejections near the top of the range and fading bullish momentum. According to analyst CrediBULL Crypto, XRP’s recent bounce attempt stalled below $2.20, reinforcing bearish control. He now expects the price to revisit the range lows around $1.77 for a potential long entry. XRP/USD four-hour price chart. Source: TradingView The rectangle-shaped green support area on the chart extends as low as $1.50, signaling a high-demand zone where bulls could step in. A short-term marketwide bounce—led primarily by Bitcoin (BTC)—could trigger a temporary recovery, argues CrediBULL, emphasizing that only a clean breakout above $3.21 would confirm a bullish trend reversal. Until then, XRP remains in a sideways structure, with CrediBULL’s strategy focused on watching for reactions at the $1.77 support level before committing to a long position. Source: X CrediBULL highlighted XRP’s sideways range between $1.77 and $3.21 as a consolidation zone, waiting for a clear breakout to confirm the next trend. Interestingly, that very range may be forming a bull flag, according to analyst Stellar Babe. XRP/USD weekly price chart. Source: TradingView/Stellar Babe A bull flag forms when the price consolidates inside a parallel channel after undergoing a strong uptrend. It resolves when the price breaks above the upper trendline and rises by as much as the previous uptrend’s height. Related: XRP price may drop another 40% as Trump tariffs spook risk traders Stellar Babe’s analysis notes that If XRP breaks above the flag’s upper boundary range at $3.21. Its projected target, based on the height of the flagpole, is around $12, up around 450% from current prices. XRP is currently consolidating within a long-term bullish structure, according to a recent analysis by InvestingScoope. The chart shows XRP trading inside a five-year ascending channel, with the current move resembling the March 2020 to April 2021 rally based on price behavior and momentum indicators. XRP/USD weekly price chart. Source: TradingView/InvestingScoope Despite the pullback, the broader bullish cycle stays intact as long as XRP holds above the 50-week moving average (1W MA50). InvestingScoope notes that this phase mirrors March 2021, which preceded a strong breakout. If the pattern continues, XRP price could be preparing for its next leg up with a potential target of $6.50 in the months ahead. This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision. Arthur Hayes, Murad’s Prediction For Meme Coins, AI & DeFi Coins For 2025 Expert Sees Bitcoin Dipping To $50K While Bullish Signs Persist Aptos Leverages Chainlink To Enhance Scalability and Data Access Bitcoin Could Rally to $80,000 on the Eve of US Elections Sonic Now ‘Golden Standard’ of Layer-2s After Scaling Transactions to 16,000+ per Second, Says Andre Cronje Institutional Investors Go All In on Crypto as 57% Plan to Boost Allocations as Bull Run Heats Up, Sygnum Survey Reveals Crypto’s Big Trump Gamble Is Risky Ripple-SEC Case Ends, But These 3 Rivals Could Jump 500xSouth Korean public officials disclosed crypto holdings
Lawmaker controversy spurred crypto disclosure laws
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Estimates of the future RWA market differ dramatically
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Overcoming crypto’s user experience problem and getting crypto out of the AOL era
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No buying opportunity until XRP falls further
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