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Crypto policy is on the agenda in Seoul as South Koreans head to the polls
Sam Reynolds, Felix Im-Coindesk
2022-03-09 08:45
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Koreans are voting today 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 ICOs, 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 $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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