Financial authorities in South Korea will not review the necessity of exchange-traded funds linked to the spot price of bitcoin after the United States' authorization of such ETFs, a senior official said Sunday.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission approved trading of ETFs tied to the spot price of bitcoin last week, in a landmark decision for the cryptocurrency investment.

The official at financial authorities said, "The direction has been arranged to see the trend without reviewing a brokerage of the US bitcoin spot ETFs or the launch of the local bitcoin spot ETFs."

In a statement last Friday, South Korea's Financial Services Commission said trading of ETFs tied to bitcoin could be illegal here.

In an official response to the US decision on bitcoin ETFs, Bank of Korea Gov. Rhee Chang-yong told reporters last week that bitcoin became a risky investment asset. (Yonhap)