"The plan to ban cryptocurrency exchanges, recently mentioned by the nation's justice minister, is one measure in talks to curb speculative investments, which the government will carry on with enough discussion for before finalising the decision," an official at the Office for Government Policy Coordination told a news conference.

On Jan. 11, Justice Minister Park Sang-ki said the government was preparing a bill to ban trading of the virtual currency on domestic exchanges.

(Reporting by Cynthia Kim; Editing by Richard Borsuk)