The new South Korea president Lee Jae-myung was recently elected after gaining nearly 50% of the votes. Here are a few of Lee’s campaign trail promises regarding crypto advancements in the region.
According to Reuters, Lee won the electoral race with more than 49% of the total votes, beating out his opponent right-wing opponent Kim Moon-soo’s 41.15%. On June 4, Lee attended his inauguration ceremony where he was officially sworn in as president.
This year’s South Korea presidential election has been a landmark race to win the favor of crypto traders and industry players in the country, considering a third of the population reportedly holds digital assets, according to Bloomberg. In fact, the Bank of South Korea recorded a total of $74.5 billion worth of assets are held by South Koreans.
As a result of this growing trend, both sides have opted for a more pro-crypto approach than ever before, promising to ease crypto regulations and expand access to digital assets. Lee himself has made promises to advance the crypto industry in South Korea, such as vowing to legalize spot crypto exchange-traded funds.
His proposal to legalize crypto ETFs was even backed by his opponent Moon-soo and the People Power Party, in a rare bipartisan alignment on cryptocurrency advancement. Both parties promised to legalize spot Bitcoin (BTC) ETFs this year.
In addition to crypto-backed spot ETFs, Lee would allow the nation’s pension fund to invest $884 billion into cryptocurrency.
If permitted, South Korean traders will be able to invest in exchange-traded funds linked to major cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum (ETH).
South Korea president Lee Jae-Myung’s push for KRW stablecoins
South Korea president Lee’s party, the Democratic Party of South Korea, wants to accelerate stablecoins backed by Korean won. The move is reminiscent of the Trump administration’s own bid to advance regulations for the USD-backed stablecoins, with the STABLE Act and the GENIUS act.
Chairman of the Democratic Party’s Digital Asset Committee, Min Byeong-deok, believes South Korea must quickly establish its own line of stablecoins, before the U.S. completely controls the market. Min believes stablecoins have the potential to become “bigger than artificial intelligence or semi-conductors” in the near future.
“We need to take the lead in institutionalizing stablecoins before U.S. dollar-based stablecoins become firmly established. That is the only way we can secure a sure position in the global battle for stablecoin hegemony,” said Min in his statement.
As previously reported by crypto.news, Lee’s party is currently pushing for lawmakers to pass a a stablecoin bill, with a working draft titled “Basic Act on Digital Assets.
