The president of South Korea, Moon Jae-in, has seen his approval ratings take a significant hit in the wake of the heated debate over the government's response to the cryptocurrency craze which is currently gripping the county.

The Gallup Korea poll found that 67% of those questioned said they approved of Moon’s handling of the situation, down 6% on the previous week's poll. The survey questioned 1,004 adults between 16th and 18th January. The margin of error is 3.1%. The results are the lowest weekly approval ratings received by Moon since the final week of September 2017, when 65% of those questioned said they approved of how President Moon was performing.

When the South Korean government announced its plans to launch a crackdown on cryptocurrency exchanges in the country, by introducing tough regulations or even implementing a complete ban, it sparked unrest among the public.

A petition calling on the government to scrap the plans quickly garnered over 200,000 signatures, the threshold at which the South Korea government must offer a response within 30 days. While no official response has yet been made, the government insists that it has not made a final decision regarding the action it will take, but that a shutdown of the country’s coin exchanges remains a possibility.