Crypto Policy Is on the Agenda in Seoul as South Koreans Head to the Polls

Platforms of both major parties mention digital assets during a campaign that is historically close.

By Sam Reynolds, Felix Im

Mar 9, 2022 at 8:45 a.m. UTC

Updated Mar 9, 2022 at 3:33 p.m. UTC

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South Koreans are voting Wednesday in a presidential election that pollsters and observers say is the closest in the country's democratic history, with a record-high turnout.

During the campaign, both major parties announced crypto policy in a bid to get young voters out to the polls.
The Democratic Party’s Lee Jae-myung pledged to use security token offerings as a way to create a dividend from real estate speculation distributed to the public.
In his official booklet of campaign pledges, Lee promised to "issue tokenized securities to give ill-earned profits from real estate speculation back to the people" and "give citizens the opportunity to invest in large-scale state development projects."
Lee vowed in January to establish a "digital asset management and supervision agency," but this has since been toned down to "a monitoring agency” of sorts.
Lee has also said he would consider bringing back initial coin offerings (ICO), which were banned in South Korea in 2017.
People Power Party candidate Yoon Seok-youl pledged to raise the threshold for a crypto capital gains tax to be the same as equities, KRW 52.4 million or US$42,450.
Currently a 20% tax on crypto gains made in a one year period kicks in at a threshold of KRW 2.5 million ($2,024).
Yoon has also promised to "take legal measures to confiscate crypto profits gained through illegitimate means and return them to the victims."
The Korea Herald reported that voter turnout had already passed 60% by 1 p.m local time, which includes two days of early voting.
This is higher than the 55.5% turnout during the last election in 2017.

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Sam Reynolds

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Felix Im

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Sam Reynolds

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Felix Im