Another "crypto president"? Lee Zaiming is betting on a series of new policies for South Korea's cryptocurrency, igniting market imagination

Author: Zen, PANews

From being born in poverty to being elected president, Lee Jae-ming has become an inspirational figure in the hearts of the Korean people. On June 4, the South Korean Election Management Committee announced that the vote counting of the 21st presidential election was completed on the same day. The results showed that Lee Jae-ming was elected as the new president with a vote-winning 49.42%. The number of votes he received was 17.287513 million, the highest in previous general elections. Li Zaiming also started working on the 4th and moved the Presidential Palace back to the Blue House.

It is worth noting that in this South Korean presidential election battle, cryptocurrency policy has become a hot topic for candidates from various parties for the first time. In order to win votes from young and middle-class people, Lee Jae-ming, a popular co-Democratic candidate and Kim Moon-soo, both made positive and progressive crypto asset policy commitments.

In the policy commitment letter, Li Zaiming discussed virtual assets as a link of the "fair economy". He said that after taking office, he will lay the foundation for cultivating the virtual asset industry with the theme of "making South Korea a digital asset center".

Li Zaiming, who is "pro" crypto assets

Lee Jae-ming is actually the "senior" of US President Trump in raising funds and attracting popularity through crypto assets.

As early as 2022 when he competed for president with Yoon Seo-yeol, Lee Jae-ming showed a positive attitude towards crypto assets and was interpreted as an intention to win over a group of young voters mainly in cryptocurrencies. He also raised campaign funds by issuing NFTs (non-fungible tokens), becoming the world's first presidential candidate to adopt this approach. When he mentioned the cryptocurrency industry, he said at the time: "Even if we are blinded, the existing market will not disappear. If we cannot avoid it, we must seize the opportunity."

"I will actively support the establishment of the digital asset ecosystem, including creative digital asset issuance, secure transactions and storage, indirect investment, and diversification of investment risks through insurance." In January 2022, Li Zaiming attended a meeting of representatives and experts of the four major virtual asset exchanges, and expressed his commitment to institutionally recognize the virtual asset business and protect various business opportunities.

Lee Jae-ming pointed out that he will also consider allowing initial coin offerings (ICOs) after taking adequate safeguards to protect investors and prevent market chaos. “The ICO ban is not a law, but a unilateral measure taken by the Ministry of Justice,” he further stated: “If we have a system to ensure stability, it is possible to achieve this before the licensing law is enacted”.

Lee Jae-ming also publicly stated: "In the past, the Democratic government adopted a negative attitude towards virtual assets and even tried to exclude them from the financial system. This was itself a wrong decision that hindered the normal development of the market." "I apologize as a Democratic MP." In addition, Li Zaiming also announced that it will review the permits the issuance of securitized tokens based on physical assets (STOs) in virtual assets and the increase of the tax-free threshold for cryptocurrency investment returns.

With the implementation of cryptocurrency regulatory and compliance policies in various countries around the world, Lee Zaiming significantly expanded his policy proposals on various categories of virtual assets in this election, and the cryptocurrency policies he advocated were generally more specific.

Promote spot ETFs and stablecoins

"I will create a safe investment environment so that young people can accumulate assets and plan for the future." On May 6, 2025, Li Zaiming promised on social networks to support the appreciation of young people's assets. He clearly promised to institutionalize spot ETFs in virtual assets and build an integrated regulatory system.

On May 13, 2025, the South Korean Democratic Party established a Digital Assets Committee, committed to formulating cryptocurrency policies and promoting industry development. The committee held its first meeting in Seoul's MP Hall, highlighting the importance of addressing regulatory uncertainty and addressing issues such as stablecoin regulation. One of its top priorities is to formulate the Basic Act of Digital Assets to establish a legal framework for crypto assets and stablecoins. The committee plans to explore the direction of comprehensive virtual assets related institutional arrangements covering stablecoins, NFTs, securities token issuance (STOs) in the future.

In addition, Lee Jae-ming expressed support for the issuance of Korean won anchor stablecoins and advocated establishing a stablecoin market denominated in Korean won to reduce the capital outflow problems caused by foreign currency stablecoins (such as USDT and USDC). South Korea's early supervision prohibited the issuance of local stablecoins, resulting in exchanges relying on US dollar stablecoins; Lee Jae-ming believes that "stablecoins pegged to the Korean won should be issued to prevent the outflow of national wealth." Regarding the policy of failing to accelerate entry into the stablecoin market, Lee Jae-ming compared it to "the closing of the country at the end of the Joseon Dynasty.

Allow state pension funds and government agencies to invest in crypto

assets

In terms of institutional investment, Li Zaiming supports the expansion of public funds' allocation of crypto assets. He proposed allowing state pension funds and other government agencies to invest in cryptocurrencies after meeting stability standards.

The Digital Assets Committee, a subsidiary of its campaign committee, issued a statement last month saying: "Announcement that pension investments in digital assets such as the National Pension Corporation is not speculative investment, but is a diversified investment strategy that is in line with international optimization models, controlled and scientifically." The committee also added that giving up digital assets due to emotional disgust is the real risk of lagging behind global financial flows, losing monetary sovereignty, and missing opportunities for national asset growth.

"Contrary to the nonsense of investing in cryptocurrencies in the National Pension Corporation, the National Pension Corporation is already investing in assets that are indirectly linked to digital assets." "Investing in digital assets is not a reckless bet, but part of an investment strategy loyal to traditional theories." The Digital Assets Commission plans to establish a system that enables the National Pension Corporation to invest directly beyond the current indirect investment in virtual assets. After incorporating virtual assets into the system to ensure stability, the National Pension Corporation will continue to improve the legislative and regulatory system and establish an investment process that complies with domestic and foreign regulations.

Relax exchange-bank cooperation to reduce crypto taxes

Li Zaiming's supervision of crypto exchanges focuses on introducing a government-led rectification mechanism. He proposed to establish a comprehensive monitoring system, centrally supervise major trading platforms, and guide the government to reduce market transaction fees.

The current "1 exchange-1 bank" rule implemented in South Korea restricts each crypto exchange to cooperate with one bank to provide Korean won deposit and withdrawal services. This rule was originally designed to prevent money laundering. Lee Jae-ming's opponents and ruling parties have proposed to abolish the rules so that the exchange can cooperate with multiple banks.

Although Li Zaiming himself did not make a clear statement, his team emphasized accelerating the legislation into the second stage and further improving the exchange supervision under the existing three-horse (financial supervision, anti-money laundering, taxation) framework. This series of policies implies that he tends to relax exchange controls and improve market competitiveness, while the former government pays more attention to preventing risks and compliance requirements.

In terms of taxation, the Democratic Party to which Lee Jae-ming proposed to gradually implement the crypto asset transaction tax, but significantly increase the deductible tax exemption. According to Yonhap News Agency, the Democratic Party plans to impose virtual asset income tax as scheduled in 2024, but raise the deduction limit for personal transaction income from the current 2.5 million won to 50 million won to alleviate the tax pressure on ordinary investors, especially young people.

Yonhap News Agency pointed out that there is controversy within the party about the delay of the crypto tax rate, but it is a consensus to increase the tax exemption. In contrast, Yoon Seok-young's government, which ruled in 2022, initially required a 20% tax on the virtual currency income tax rate in 2023 (more than the annual income of 2.5 million won). Li Zaiming's approach is actually to recognize the universality of crypto transactions, reduce overly strict tax barriers, and allow the government to give more incentive space while collecting taxes to help the market develop healthily.

Conclusion

Lee Jae-ming's victory not only represents a change in South Korea's political landscape, but also indicates that the country's policy direction for crypto assets may usher in major changes. From "embracing supervision" to "cultivating industries", from institutional construction to integrating capital markets, his "new encryption policy" has begun to emerge.

Against the backdrop of strengthening cryptocurrency compliance supervision in many countries around the world, whether South Korea can achieve the goal of "digital asset center" through this round of policy changes is worthy of continued market attention.