According to a Dec. 6 report from the Korea Herald, directives from the country's Financial Services Commission led securities firms such as eBest Investment & Securities and Shinhan Financial Investment to cancel seminars marketed towards bitcoin futures investors. Those seminars were reportedly set to take place early next week.

Investments in derivatives developed by foreign exchanges are also banned, the newspaper further said Wednesday.

The reported ban comes less than two weeks after the Financial Supervisory Services's chief, Choe Heung-sik, said the regulator would not be regulating bitcoin trades, noting that the nation considers bitcoin as a speculative product rather than a currency or payment method.