South Korea’s opposition party vows to endorse spot bitcoin ETFs: report

South Korea’s opposing Democratic Party is pushing to allow local citizens to invest in spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds and enable financial institutions to launch their spot bitcoin ETFs, local news media reported Tuesday.

The party is pledging to allow investors to purchase spot bitcoin ETFs through their individual savings accounts, according to a Seoul Economy Daily report . An ISA is an all-in-one account for various investments in funds or equity-linked securities, which also offers tax exemptions to financial profits of up to two million Korean won ($1,497).

With the news, both ruling and opposing political parties have now reportedly taken on opening up spot bitcoin ETF investments and product launches in South Korea as one of their main pledges ahead of the general election on April 10. 

Last month, the country’s financial regulator reiterated its ban restricting financial institutions from launching any kind of cryptocurrency ETFs. Local investors are currently restricted from investing in spot crypto ETFs, while foreign crypto futures products remain available. 

A member of the Democratic Party reportedly said that it may take legislative measures to revise the existing financial regulations to accommodate spot bitcoin ETFs if the country’s financial authorities decide to oppose the authorization of the products, Seoul Economy Daily reported.

Other election promises from the opposition party shadowed those prepared by the ruling party, as reported a day earlier, including lifting the ban on institutions from directly investing in crypto and raising the threshold for the scheduled tax on crypto gains from 2.5 million won to 50 million won.

The Democratic Party will reportedly announce its full proposal to institutionalize and vitalize the digital asset sector on Wednesday.