BOK Governor Rhee Flags Risks of Overseas Crypto Cards Evading Rules, Vows Close Monitoring

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Rhee Chang-yong, governor of the Bank of Korea, said he will closely monitor concerns that overseas crypto cards could be used to circumvent financial regulations and leave users inadequately protected.

At a parliamentary audit on October 12, Rhee responded to a question from Kim Nam-jun, a lawmaker from the Democratic Party, about the potential for overseas crypto cards to evade regulation. “There are various forms of regulatory arbitrage,” Rhee said. “In particular, crypto card operators are all based overseas and mainly rely on dollar-denominated stablecoins, which creates several risks.”

Crypto cards allow users to make payments with virtual assets such as Bitcoin. When a user pays in crypto, an intermediary converts the assets into fiat currency and pays the merchant. Rhee said that process adds another layer of intermediation and that fees appear to be considerably higher than those of conventional payment methods.