The Democratic Party of South Korea has campaigned on the platform of providing access to US-spot Bitcoin ETFs to its supporters in the next election.
In anticipation of the approaching parliamentary elections, political parties in South Korea have instituted incentive programmed within the cryptocurrency industry. A Bloomberg article states that the Democratic Party, which is in opposition, has pledged to lift regulations on a number of local and foreign cryptocurrency goods. U.S. exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and digital assets are two examples.
South Korean officials have made their concerns known over the potential violations of local regulations by ETFs since their acceptance in January by the US. “We’re going to legalize the ETFs, whether local or abroad,” said Hwanseok Choi, a policy expert for the Democratic Party, referencing the party’s platform. Choi helped draft the party’s platform while serving on its research tank.
The People Power Party’s president, Yoon Seok Yeol, is also trying to win over people by offering digital assets as incentives. Earlier planned to take effect in 2025, he promised in his remarks to accelerate the implementation of taxes on digital asset earnings. In an effort to seize power from the Democratic Party’s progressive faction, Yoon will be vying for control of the legislature.
Approximately six million people in South Korea engaged in cryptocurrency trading on authorized exchanges during the first half of 2023, according to official statistics. Roughly 10% of the total population lives in this nation. According to official sources, South Koreans were also active during the recent bull run, and they seem to have a preference for smaller coins. According to official sources, around 7% of the candidates running for office now own cryptocurrency.
South Koreans have put almost $200 million into shares of MicroStrategy (MRST), according to data from the Korean Securities Depository. Because of its holdings in Bitcoin, experts see the firm as a leveraged Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF). It is legal for certain South Koreans to participate in the US crypto futures ETF market.
Regulating digital assets is imminent, despite election-season campaign pledges to the contrary. Authorities in the financial sector have issued a statement announcing new standards for the listing of tokens on centralized exchanges. South Korean news agencies report that until the root of the hacking situation is identified, the government will ban cryptocurrency exchanges from listing the affected coins. On top of that, digital assets accompanied by white papers or manuals will be the only ones that exchanges may list.
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