[Photo by Yoo Dae-gil = dbeorlf123@ajunews.com]
SEOUL, Jan. 30 (Aju News) -- Financial regulators turned their thumbs down, but a South Korean court recognized the value of cryptocurrencies as financial assets for the first time on Tuesday by ordering the confiscation of Bitcoin from a pornography site operator accused of obtaining criminal profits.
An appeals court in Suwon, some 40 kilometers (24 miles) south of Seoul, upheld a 18-month jail sentence for a 33-year-old man, identified by his surname, Ahn, who was arrested in May last year for operating an illegal pornography site to earn 1.9 billion won (1.78 million US dollars), including Bitcoin worth 500 million won at its market value at the time.
Ahn received virtual money from users of his site, and the value of Bitcoin has soared to 2.42 billion won at Tuesday's market price.
Initially, a district court rejected a request from prosecutors to seize Ahn's virtual money, saying Bitcoin is an electronic file format without physical entities. The High Court overturned the lower court's decision and ordered the confiscation of Bitcoin, citing a judicial case that game money should be seen as goods.
In reality, various economic activities are being carried out to give a certain economic value to Bitcoin, the appeals court said, adding Bitcoin could be exchanged into legal currencies, and there are shops using it as payment means.
Court authorities in Suwon stressed that Tuesday's decision is irrelevant to a social debate over whether cryptocurrencies should be recognized as financial products. At a parliament committee, Financial Services Commission (FSC) chairman Choi Jong-ku repeated his earlier position that he cannot see virtual money as legal money.
reporter
Lim Chang-won
cwlim34@ajunews.com
