How Will the Blockchain and Digital Asset Industry Change in 2022?

Korea's 20th presidential election brought a wave of new pledges on blockchain and digital assets.

Korea held its 20th presidential election on March 9. Since virtual asset businesses were brought inside the regulatory perimeter by the Act on Reporting and Using Specified Financial Transaction Information (the Specific Financial Information Act) last year, calls for positive attention to and active nurturing of blockchain and virtual assets have grown louder — and this election produced a range of pledges and policies on both.

Let's take a look at the pledges and policies put forward by President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol, elected as Korea's 20th president.

Bringing digital assets inside the regulatory perimeter through legislation

Enacting a Digital Asset Basic Act

■ Full recovery, through judicial proceedings, of proceeds from improper coin trading (mis-selling, price manipulation, wash trading, market-rigging and other unfair trading practices) ■ Introduction and expansion of an insurance scheme covering hacks and system failures

■ Building safe investment platforms, introducing a disclosure regime, and more

■ Fostering specialized financial institutions that link digital asset trading accounts with banks

■ Shifting to a "negative-list" regulatory and policy approach so that the virtual asset market can realize its full potential

Easing taxation on virtual assets

Coin investment gains tax-free up to KRW 50 million

■ Taxation to begin after the framework is in place

■ Basic deduction on transfer gains to be raised to KRW 50 million, the same as for stocks

Phased approval of ICOs

Allow ICOs, but — given concerns about investor harm from pyramid schemes and the like — start with the Initial Exchange Offering (IEO)* model, which comes with safeguards built in

Building and nurturing digital asset market governance

Establishing a Digital Industry Promotion Agency (working title)

■ Building an inter-ministerial cooperation framework to serve as the control tower for emerging digital industries such as NFTs

Nurturing a new kind of digital asset market by boosting NFT trading

■ Supporting the development of a variety of blockchain-based technologies and putting an institutional foundation in place ahead of the arrival of new types of digital assets

Source: Lee & Ko newsletter, "Key Digital Asset Policies of President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol"

Taken as a whole, Yoon's virtual asset policy is about growing the market and protecting investors, and bringing digital assets inside the regulatory perimeter to make that possible. It looks set to accelerate the shift already underway since the Specific Financial Information Act, and we expect policy and attitudes toward virtual assets to keep moving in a more positive direction.

Within that shift, ICONLOOP is preparing on several fronts to expand in earnest beyond its existing B2B business in DID and other blockchain technologies, into virtual asset services and service tooling.

Most recently, we signed a business agreement with 2bytes, a startup specializing in global game services, and began development of SPERA, an interchain NFT-based gaming platform. We are planning further expansion into a number of other areas as well, and we will share the news each time something is ready.

We hope you will keep an eye on ICONLOOP as we grow.

Life Meets Blockchain, ICONLOOP