South Korea’s constitutional court has dismissed a lawsuit challenging a law that bans gamers from buying and selling cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
According to local News1, two unnamed individuals for legal reasons, after administrative prosecution, tried to challenge the law that prohibits gamers from buying and selling cryptocurrencies and NFTs, saying that it violates the country’s constitution. The fate of the Play-to-Earn (P2E) industry in South Korea depended on the success of this case. However, the judges unanimously dismissed the complaint.
The South Korean gaming industry law came into force in 2006 and has been changed several times since then. It prohibits companies and individuals from exchanging virtual items or in-game currency for real money, as well as cryptocurrencies. Under the law, offenders can be imprisoned for up to five years or fined up to $600,000.
One of the plaintiffs, an operator of an online gaming brokerage and trading firm, was charged with selling and redeeming virtual items and was fined $33,300. use cryptocurrencies in online gambling.
The gaming industry in South Korea is valued at $16 billion and many companies are interested in exploring P2E. So, on Monday, the Ministry of Science and Information and Communication Technologies of South Korea announced that it plans to allocate $185 million to create its own metaverse.
