South Korea’s new president, Yoon Suk-Yeol, will take office on 10 May. He beat the democratic candidate Lee Jae-myung by around 240,000 votes, winning 48.56% of the vote, compared to 47.83% for his opponent.
Summary
South Korea’s new crypto-friendly president
This news immediately excited the crypto community, because based on campaign statements, the new president promised very favourable laws for crypto companies and those holding digital assets.
💥HUGE: South Korea just elected a #Bitcoin friendly President overnight! 🇰🇷 🙌
— Bitcoin Archive (@BTC_Archive) March 10, 2022
The 61-year-old Yoon became famous for his investigations as a prosecutor, which got two former presidents in trouble on corruption charges. He has pledged to raise the threshold for paying capital gains tax on gains from Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies from $2,000 to $40,000, making him one of the most generous in the world when it comes to tax breaks for the cryptocurrency world.
South Korea’s crypto policies
The new president has also stated that he will likely re-evaluate the government’s 2017 ban on Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs). It cannot be ruled out based on his statements that this ban may also soon be lifted.
In reality, even the progressive candidate had already shown a pro-cryptocurrency attitude during the election campaign, accepting cryptocurrency donations in support of his candidacy, also using NFTs.
However, it is a fact that his ruling party has implemented a policy that is certainly not favourable to the sector, implementing very restrictive regulations that have also led to the closure of 60 exchanges active in the country.
Yoon immediately focused not only on cryptocurrencies but also on blockchain technology to promote his candidacy to the country’s younger electorate, even using Avatars to answer voters’ questions.
This was probably the factor that allowed him to win the election if you consider that on the basis of the polls, 59.5% of people in their twenties and 54% of people in their thirties would have voted for him, while a large part of the female electorate would have voted for the Democrat.
