Yoon vows to deregulate virtual asset industry

SEOUL, Jan. 20 (Yonhap) -- Main opposition presidential candidate Yoon Suk-yeol vowed Thursday to deregulate the virtual asset industry to further promote its growth.

Yoon of the conservative People Power Party said the industry should be allowed to operate without regulations unless they have been explicitly prohibited.

"To realize the unlimited potential of the virtual asset market, we must overhaul regulations that are far from reality and unreasonable," he said at a virtual asset forum at a Seoul hotel.

"We must shift to a negative regulation system to ensure at least the virtual asset market has no worries," he said.

Yoon called for measures to enable the virtual asset industry to produce unicorns, or privately held startup companies that are valued at over $1 billion.

The move is apparently aimed at wooing voters in their 20s and 30s, who have a strong interest in cryptocurrencies, and follows his pledge to ease the tax burden on profits from cryptocurrency investments.

Yoon said Wednesday he will raise the tax threshold from the current 2.5 million won (US$2,099) to 50 million won.

hague@yna.co.kr
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