South Korea's new president Lee Jae-myung pushes for encryption asset policies, attracting market follow.

On June 4th, the South Korean Election Commission announced the results of the 21st presidential election, with Lee Jae-myung elected as the new president with a vote rate of 49.42%. Notably, in this South Korean presidential election, cryptocurrency policy became a hot topic among the candidates for the first time.

Lee Jae-myung included virtual assets as an important component of "fair economy" in his policy commitments. He stated that after taking office, he aims to make "South Korea a digital asset center" to lay the foundation for nurturing the virtual asset industry.

As early as his campaign in 2022, Lee Jae-myung demonstrated a positive attitude towards encryption assets and raised campaign funds by issuing NFTs, becoming the world's first presidential candidate to adopt this method. He stated at the time: "If we cannot avoid it, we must seize the initiative."

Li Zaiming promised to actively support the establishment of the digital asset ecosystem, including innovative digital asset issuance, secure trading and storage, indirect investment, and risk diversification. He also stated that he would consider allowing Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) and reviewing the issuance of security tokens (STOs) based on physical assets.

In promoting spot ETFs and stablecoins, Lee Jae-myung promised to institutionalize the virtual asset spot ETF system and build an integrated regulatory framework. He also supports the issuance of a Korean won-pegged stablecoin to reduce the capital outflow issue caused by foreign currency stablecoins.

Lee Jae-myung also supports expanding the allocation of public funds to encryption assets, proposing to allow national pension funds and other government agencies to invest in cryptocurrencies after meeting stability standards. His team believes that investing in digital assets is part of an investment strategy faithful to traditional theories.

In terms of exchange regulation, Lee Jae-myung proposed establishing a comprehensive monitoring system to centrally regulate major trading platforms, with the government guiding the reduction of market trading costs. His team emphasized accelerating the legislative process into the second phase to further improve exchange regulation.

In terms of tax policy, the Democratic Party led by Lee Jae-myung proposed to gradually implement a tax on encryption asset transactions while significantly increasing the deductible exemption amount to reduce the tax burden on ordinary investors, especially young people.

Lee Jae-myung's victory suggests that South Korea may face significant changes in its encryption asset policy direction. From "embracing regulation" to "nurturing industry," and from institutional construction to capital market integration, his "new encryption policy" has begun to take shape. In the context of many countries around the world strengthening compliance regulation of cryptocurrencies, whether South Korea can achieve the goal of becoming a "digital asset center" through this round of policy changes is worth the market's continued follow.