가상자산거래소의 민사책임 - 우리나라와 일본의 최근 판결례를 소재로 -

Since virtual assets began to be traded in Korea in 2013, lawsuits against virtual asset exchanges have also continued to increase in number as the amount of investment continues to increase. The issues dealt with in these lawsuits often involve damages due to the inability to use the service due to the problem in the servers operated by virtual asset exchanges or incorrect cryptocurrency payments. In addition, with the recent occurrence of the Terra and Luna crisis, concerns over potential risks in the virtual asset market have also increased, hurting its reliability. Above all, about 280,000 individuals were victimized in Korea as a result of the Tera and Luna crisis, and the social need for legal and institutional maintenance to protect virtual asset investors has steadily increased. In accordance with this situation, continued efforts have been exerted to reorganize various policies and laws for risk management in the virtual asset market at home and abroad. Various legal and policy issues are being discussed, with one of the main issues involving the responsibility of virtual asset exchanges to protect investors. Conventionally, the civil judicial review process of virtual assets is used to determine the legal nature of virtual assets based on traditional legal concepts and develop the interpretation of individual civil legal issues based on this determination. However, it seems that there are certain limits to replacing the legal treatment of the existence of virtual assets as completely different from conventional currencies with interpretation alone. Considering this, the legal treatment of virtual assets needs to be actively reviewed as an alternative if it deviates from the traditional legal concept while accurately grasping the technical characteristics of virtual assets, as well as the interpretative perspective. In addition, legislative discussions on specific regulations that can protect investors (consumers) as they transact with virtual assets are necessary. The European Union’s Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation (MICA) is one of the main legislative purposes of this regulation. Current consumer laws, such as the Act On The Consumer Protection In Electronic Commerce, can be applied to virtual asset transactions; in reality, however, it is desirable to tackle the protection of investors (users) in individual laws aimed at disciplining virtual asset transactions.