South Korean President Lee Jae Myung ​said on Wednesday if Washington introduced higher U.S. tariffs on semiconductor imports, it would likely boost U.S. prices, playing down concerns ‌about the proposed duty, Reuters reported. U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has said that South Korean and Taiwanese chipmakers may face tariffs of up to 100% unless they commit to increased production on American soil. Lee said that given South Korean and Taiwanese chipmakers' dominance of the market, a 100% U.S. import duty would likely sharply raise prices for chip products in the United States.

South Korea is tightening its grip on how crypto platforms reach users, using app stores as an enforcement lever as regulators sharpen the boundary between compliant digital finance and unregistered crypto activity, Decrypt.com reported. The country has advanced legislation establishing a legal framework for security token offerings, creating a regulated pathway for blockchain-based issuance and trading of tokenized securities.

South Korea plans to open its markets to spot bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) this year, part of a broader digital asset push led by the Financial Services Commission (FSC) under its 2026 economic growth strategy, CoinDesk.com reported. Until now, cryptocurrencies like bitcoin weren’t legally recognized as valid underlying assets for ETFs, blocking the creation of these products in the country. The FSC appears to be following the lead of other jurisdictions, including the U.S. and Hong Kong, where spot bitcoin ETFs have seen significant success.

South Korea's factory activity expanded in December, after two months of contraction, on a rebound in export demand, a private-sector survey showed on Friday, with manufacturers' optimism surging to a 3-1/2-year high, Reuters reported. The purchasing managers index (PMI) for manufacturers in Asia's fourth-largest economy, published by S&P Global, stood at 50.1 in December, just above the 50-mark separating expansion from contraction, after two consecutive months at 49.4.

Kim Seong-sik, a lawyer from Law Firm One, has been nominated as the new president of the Korea Deposit Insurance Corporation (KDIC), Chosen.com reported. Kim, a classmate of President Lee Jae-myung from the 28th session of the judicial examination, served as part of the defense team during the trial related to the abuse-of-power charges against President Lee when the latter was governor of Gyeonggi Province. On the 30th, the Financial Services Commission announced that it had nominated Kim as the new KDIC president.

Mirae Asset Financial Group is considering an acquisition of Korbit, the fourth-ranked among Korea’s five digital asset exchanges, sparking speculation that the deal could shake up a market long dominated by Upbit and Bithumb, according to industry officials Monday, the Korea Times reported on Monday. The Seoul-based financial group has been centering on traditional finance since its founding in the late 1990s and has no prior involvement in crypto-related businesses.

South Korean e-commerce company Coupang has been sued in a U.S. court in an investor class action ​alleging violations of securities laws after a cybersecurity breach exposed ‌personal information of more than 33 million customers, Reuters reported. The lawsuit, filed last week in federal court in ‌California, claims Coupang, its CEO and Chairman Bom Kim and its Chief Financial Officer Gaurav Anand misled investors about the company’s data security practices and failed to disclose the breach in a timely way.

Do Kwon, a crypto entrepreneur who created two virtual currencies that spectacularly melted down, prompting a market crisis in 2022, was sentenced to 15 years in prison yesterday, the New York Times reported. Kwon became a cautionary tale of crypto hubris when the digital currencies he designed — TerraUSD and Luna — lost all their value practically overnight. The crash caused a chain reaction that led to the collapse of a string of major crypto companies. Mr.

Do Kwon, the South Korean cryptocurrency entrepreneur behind two digital currencies that lost an estimated $40 billion in 2022, is set to be sentenced in New York federal court on Thursday for fraud and conspiracy, Reuters reported. Kwon, 34, who co-founded Singapore-based Terraform Labs and developed the TerraUSD and Luna currencies, previously pleaded guilty and admitted to misleading investors about a coin that was supposed to maintain a steady price during periods of crypto market volatility.