During an unusually close race, both major parties’ platforms emphasise digital assets.
Koreans are voting today in the closest presidential race in the country’s democratic history, according to pollsters and analysts, with a record-high turnout.
Both main parties revealed crypto policies throughout the campaign to entice young voters to the polls.
Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Party promised to use Security Token Offerings to provide a dividend from real estate speculation to the general population. Lee promised to “issue tokenized securities to return ill-gotten riches from real estate speculators to the public” and “provide residents the option to engage in large-scale state development projects” in his official campaign pledge booklet.
Lee pledged to create a “digital asset management and supervisory agency” in January, but this has subsequently been downgraded to “a monitoring agency.” Lee has also stated that ICOs, which were outlawed in South Korea in 2017, may be reinstated. Yoon Seok-youl, a People Power Party candidate, promised to raise the crypto capital gains tax threshold to the same level as equities, KRW 52.4 million ($42,450). A 20% tax on crypto gains made in a year is currently imposed at a threshold of KRW 2.5 million ($2,024).
Yoon has also stated that he will “take legal action to collect crypto gains obtained through unlawful ways and refund them to the victims.” According to the Korea Herald, voter turnout had already surpassed 60% by 1 p.m. local time, after two days of early voting. This is greater than the previous election’s 55.5 percent turnout in 2017.
Disclaimer: These are the writer’s opinions and should not be considered investment advice. Readers should do their own research.
