암호화폐 마진거래와 도박규제 -대상판결:광주지방법원 2024. 2. 13. 선고 2023노1926 판결-

This case is the first domestic precedent in which a defendant who operated a cryptocurrency margin trading brokerage site on the Internet was found guilty of opening a gambling space. Cryptocurrency margin trading is a transaction that involves depositing a certain percentage of margin in cryptocurrency and buying or selling cryptocurrency equivalent to several times the margin. The target case ‘A site’ receives Bitcoin as margin and provides a multiplier of up to 100 times the margin to allow users to choose a sell or buy position. If the user’s prediction is correct, they can earn a large profit depending on the multiplier, but if the prediction wrong, the higher the multiplier they select, the faster they lose money. The 1st and 2nd trial courts ruled that since there were no Bitcoin transactions between sellers and buyers on this site, there was no transaction price on the site itself, and that profits and losses depended on whether the fluctuations were adjusted using an index that averaged the transaction prices on other sites. Approximately 320 bitcoins (approximately 3,117 million dollars as of December 9, 2024) were confiscated while pleading guilty to the crime of opening a gambling space, evaluating it as nothing more than a determined gamble. Korea currently prohibits cryptocurrency margin trading as a policy, but in light of global trends, it is highly likely that it will be legally incorporated into the system in the future. It seems necessary to incorporate cryptocurrency margin trading into the institutional system on the premise that approved, legitimate exchanges of a certain size or more operate within a certain leverage. However, even if it is incorporated into the system, it may be considered a crime to open a gambling space under the criminal law, so in order for investors to invest stably, regulations on grounds for illegality must be established.