"Allow National Pension to Invest in Coins"... Lee Jae-myung's Camp Pushes for Digital Asset Institutionalization

The Digital Asset Committee under the election campaign of Lee Jae-myung, the presidential candidate of the Democratic Party of Korea, has formalized the enactment of the 'Digital Asset Basic Act' and announced its position to incorporate digital assets into institutional financial assets.

According to the industry on the 16th, the Digital Asset Committee stated in its announcement that "if digital assets are legally incorporated as eligible assets, participation by institutional investors such as the National Pension will be possible." The committee plans to promote the enactment of the Digital Asset Basic Act and amendments to the Capital Markets Act and the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act to support this, and added that it has also gathered related opinions through academic and financial industry conferences held on the 13th and 14th.

The Digital Asset Committee particularly emphasized the need to establish an integrated legal framework without separately distinguishing between stablecoins and general virtual assets. They explained that introducing separate regulatory systems in a similar distribution structure would only increase inefficiency and regulatory costs.

Previously, candidate Lee had pledged to secure value stability and a basis for institutional entry into the digital asset market through the issuance of won-based stablecoins. The committee's current policy is interpreted as a strategy to absorb the overall virtual assets into the institutional framework based on stablecoins.

Additionally, they plan to allow spot Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) utilizing digital assets as underlying assets and to promote amendments to the Capital Markets Act for this purpose. Provisions recognizing digital assets as underlying or trust assets are expected to be included.

The committee stated, "If the enactment of the Basic Act and the introduction of ETFs proceed in parallel, it will alleviate custody risks, simplify accounting processing, and gradually resolve the 'Kimchi Premium' phenomenon caused by domestic and foreign price differences."