South Korea has finally moved to crack down on bitcoin and cryptocurrency trading with a number of new rules that aim to restrict speculative trading.

The country, one of the world’s largest in terms of bitcoin trading, first said that it would be considering new measures in October. Finance Minister Kim Dong-yeon told local media that he was “reviewing the role of virtual currencies such as bitcoin.” He said the government’s “finance committee is preparing countermeasures against virtual money at the level of the government, and it should be dealt with as an axis of the economy in the financial sector.”

As bitcoin boomed in December, South Korea held an emergency meeting to consider new measures, which were finally revealed Thursday.

At the top of the list is a ban on anonymous bitcoin trading, with users of cryptocurrency exchanges now required to link their accounts to their real world identities. Owners of exchanges will be required to gather that data and after a one-month period will be required to close the accounts of anyone who has not complied with the measure. Under the same measure, noncompliant cryptocurrency exchanges will be able to be closed by the government under proposed legislation.

What isn’t entirely clear is which bans may also take place. In a statement on Facebook, the South Korean Financial Services Commission said that banks will be required to stop offering virtual accounts to cryptocurrency exchanges immediately, but a further report from CNBC states that the new regulations will also prohibit cryptocurrency exchanges from issuing new trading accounts. If the latter is true, that would be a constriction on growth in the country going forward.

Initially, markets reacted negatively to the news, with reports that bitcoin dropped as much as 11 percent following the announcement. But as of 9:30 p.m. EST, the price had fully recovered to trade at $14,772.37.

The possible banning of new accounts would be of concern, but requiring account holders to be personally identifiable only brings South Korea into line with current regulations in countries such as the United States, where bitcoin exchanges are required to obtain identification as part of KYC or “Know your customer” regulations.

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