• Report says legal changes help projects with ties to the Korean government, projects run by subsidiaries of listed companies
  • MyID Alliance welcomes five new members, too

The South Korean parliament’s recent passing of the Financial Transactions Reporting Act (FTRA) has been good news for local virtual assets, especially ICON (ICX).

Korean-language tech news site The Daily Post reports that coin prices have soared since the passage of the FTRA last week, fueled by expectations that cryptocurrencies will finally be brought into the institutional mainstream.

Doing especially well are cryptocurrency projects with ties to the South Korean government or run by subsidiaries of listed companies.

In particular, the price of ICX climbed to nearly US$0.42 against the dollar, 24% higher than it was trading prior to the passage. Metadium and Klay were trading higher, too.

The situation in South Korea was mirrored in India, where an Indian Supreme Court ruling striking down the country’s ban on using cryptocurrency helped propel coin prices for local project Matic Network.

Also helping ICON’s price was news that the MyID Alliance had added five new partners: the Industrial Bank of Korea, P2P financial firm Funda, blockchain security solution Quantstamp, mobile pass solution MOCAsystem and the Korea Smart Clothing Association.

ICX has retrenched some since its high this week. It was trading at US$0.32 against the dollar on Tuesday (Korea time), up 7.23% from the previous day.