South Korea FSC nominee says crypto has ‘no intrinsic value’

Lee Eok-won, South Korea’s Financial Services Commission chief nominee, dismissed cryptocurrency as highly volatile and lacking intrinsic value.

Lee Eok-won, the nominee for chairman of South Korea’s Financial Services Commission (FSC), has made harshly critical remarks about cryptocurrency.

According to a Monday report by local news outlet News1, Lee said that “crypto has extreme price volatility, lacks monetary function” and has “no intrinsic value.” He also wrote in answers questions submitted by lawmakers ahead of his confirmation hearing that “virtual assets differ from traditional financial products like deposits and securities in that they have no intrinsic value.”

Lee explained that the volatility of cryptocurrencies makes it hard to imagine them acting as a store of value or medium of exchange. The report notes that the remarks attracted criticism from South Korea’s crypto industry.

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