With South Korean investors having gone heavily into crypto-currencies last year, the Government has shown over the last few days that it is keen to rein them in. One new rule is that investors will pay fines if they refuse to hold crypto-accounts in their own names.

The news comes from Yonhap News, which also says that crypto-currency traders (which banks are not yet allowed to be) must begin to use their actual names by this time next month. The amounts that recalcitrants will have to pay are unknown. For clues, Yonhap harks back to 1993 when firms that broke some other rules that called on them to use their own names had to forfeit 60% of their assets. Once the 'real name' rule is in force, however, Yonhap suggests that the ban on banks trading or offering crypto-accounts will be lifted, as long as they build compliant systems.

The Government is acting less even-handedly when it gives out instructions to its quangos. The stock exchange, the central bank, the Fair Trade Commission and the Financial Supervisory Service have all reportedly told their employees not to invest or trade in crypto-currencies.

Bithumb, one of the world's largest private Bitcoin exchanges, is in South Korea and more than two million people are thought to own some Bitcoins. At the moment, according to Reuters, anyone with a mobile phone in their name and a bank account can sign up and trade on it and it was "the world’s top operator of virtual currencies in November by trading volume." As CNN reported last month, "South Korea is going bitcoin crazy." The use of that most venerable of 'cryptos' is widespread in society at large and the country accounts for one-fifth of all Bitcoin trades in the world. The Government's reaction to this seems to be a mainly hostile one. CNN noted that such is the demand on Korean exchanges that South Koreans often end up paying a premium of 15-25% over global prices.

The early part of this month, indeed, has seen some speculation to the effect that the South Korean justice ministry might ban Bitcoin outright. Bitcoin remains the original and most popular crypto-currency, with a global market capitalisation of US$183 billion - much more than its closest rival, Etherium, which has US$92 billion (source: coinmarketcap.com). Not only this - last weeek the Financial Services Commission and the Financial Supervisory Service said that they were inspecting six South Korean banks for signs that they might be facilitating money-laundering with the use of virtual currency. These included Shinhan Bank, Kookmin Bank and Woori Bank, all of which have private banking arms. The others were NH Bank, a Seoul-based agricultural bank, the Industrial Bank of Korea and Korea Development Bank.

The price of a Bitcoin has fallen nearly 40% over the last month, despite being valued at around US$20,000 a few days ago. Some of this is being attributed to the South Korean clampdown.

The head of the FSC has already told reporters that the aim of the Government is to limit speculation in crypto-currencies for people's own good. It seems more likely, however, that the South Korean Government, like others, has no real idea what to do about this disruptive new technological phenomenon. It is possible that the mixed but largely hostile messages that it is giving out are in line with Ronald Reagan's idea of the way in which governments tend to behave: "If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. If it stops moving, subsidise it."