Conservative Yoon Suk-yeol, who supported deregulation of the cryptocurrency sector and issued non fungibe tokens (NFTs) during his election campaign, has been elected as South Korea’s next president.
What Happened: South Korean ruling party candidate Lee Jae-myung admitted defeat on Thursday morning, according to a BBC report.
Yoon, who represents the opposition, won the presidency by a margin of just one percent in a heated contest, as per the report.
During the campaign, Yoon had advocated for the deregulation of the virtual asset industry, according to Korea’s Yonhap News Agency.
"To realize the unlimited potential of the virtual asset market, we must overhaul regulations that are far from reality and unreasonable," Yoon has been quoted as saying.
Both Yoon and Lee issued NFTs during their election campaign, according to a report from The Block.
See Also: How To Buy Bitcoin (BTC)
Why it Matters: Yoon during his campaign pledged to reduce the tax burden on profits from cryptocurrency investments, such as those in Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC), Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) and Dogecoin (CRYPTO: DOGE), according to Yonhap.
The president-elect reportedly called for measures that would allow the virtual asset industry to produce unicorns.
Prices of Bitcoin on South Korean exchanges and those around the world usually have a gap, which is referred to as “kimchi premium.”
The Korean cryptocurrency market is mostly comprised of retail investors due to prevalent regulations against institutional investors and stable coins, according to CryptoQuant, a community-driven analytics platform.
