South Korea heads to the polls today and regardless of the candidates, crypto is likely to be the big winner.
Lee Jae-myung of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and Eun Suk-yol of the Conservative People’s Power Party are currently in a face-off, but many believe cryptocurrency adoption will go ahead regardless of the candidate’s victory.
Li Junheng, Founder and CEO of GoPax Exchange bloomberg: “Crypto is perceived by the global financial community as a legitimate new asset class. The policy campaign for crypto is just about to get stronger.” An estimated 20% of South Korea’s population owns crypto.
Both presidential candidates made pro-crypto pledges in their manifestos, marking a departure in policy from incumbent President Moon Jae-in.
Crypto was a major focus of proposed legislation in South Korea last year. The plan to tax crypto profits over $2,000 at a rate of 20% was postponed until 2023.
Junheng also pointed out that for people in their 20s and 30s, crypto brings some sort of “hope”.
Eun Sok-yol has vowed to control the industry, while allowing it to grow. His proposals included raising the crypto tax limit from the current $2,030 to $41,000.
“To realize the limitless potential of the virtual asset market, we have to change rules that are far from reality and unfair,” he said in a virtual forum earlier this year.
One party also released NFT to attract young voters
Meanwhile, the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) also sought to attract younger voters by issuing non-fungible tokens (NFTs) as part of its fundraising campaign.
In addition, the party’s candidate pledged to institutionalize the virtual asset industry as part of his election campaign.
With promising business opportunities in the area, he said he would examine plans to appoint a supervisor for the digital asset market.
The crypto space has become a major battleground for politics in South Korea as another survey found that 40% of 20 to 30-year-olds have experience investing in virtual assets.
Lee wants to revisit the ICO ban in the country, while Yoon wants to give Crypto Unicorn (a privately held startup company valued at over $1 billion) more business opportunities.