South Korea releases guidelines to define whether NFTs are virtual assets

BlockBeats news, June 10, according to South Korean media News1 reported that with the South Korean "Virtual Asset User Protection Act" will take effect on July 19, guidelines on which non-fungible tokens (NFTs) belong to virtual assets have been issued.

The "Virtual Asset User Protection Act" implementation order stated that NFTs are not virtual assets. This principle remains unchanged, but NFTs that are actually virtual assets may be regarded as virtual assets. Companies that issue NFTs that are virtual assets need to report their business to the authorities as virtual asset operators.

NFTs that are issued in large quantities, divisible, and used as a means of payment are "virtual assets." The Financial Services Commission has issued an NFT guide that includes the above content. First, once the "Virtual Asset User Protection Act" is implemented, general NFTs traded for "content collection purposes" will be excluded from the scope of virtual assets. For NFTs with blurred boundaries, the order of "securities → virtual assets" will be followed, and the application of regulations will be determined based on the essence of the NFT. First, we need to check whether NFT is a security, and then examine whether it is a virtual asset.