In Korea’s presidential election, contenders fought tooth and nail to gain the support of uncertain young voters. Both candidates went to great pains to make their campaigns nasty.
According to statistics, over 40% of Koreans aged 20 to 30 possess crypto assets, and overall crypto trading volume exceeds the KOSPI stock exchange.
The prohibition on initial coin offerings (ICOs), which was enacted in 2017, was the first focus of both candidates. Both candidates were aware of the dangers and provided potential remedies.
Candidate Lee Jae-Myung stated that ICOs would be allowed if sufficient safety precautions were implemented but did not specify what those safeguards were.
On the other hand, now-president Yoon Suk-yeol proposed using bank-backed crypto exchanges to convert ICOs to IEOs.
Candidates showered crypto support to lure Korea’s youth
Yoon issued his own NFTs a week before the elections after obtaining an advantage by detailing how he’d manage ICOs. Yoon said that he would release a total of 22,329 NFTs at a price of around $40 each.
His opponent, taken off guard, proclaimed right away that he’d be raising airdropped NFTs as well, but he couldn’t match Yoon’s impact.
Yoon Suk-yeol won by less than 1% on March 9th, bringing the campaign to a close. Both candidates used crypto ideologies to appeal to the younger generation, assuming that the old guard had already settled on a candidate and would not alter their minds.
However, a week before the elections, the research found that adults in their 40s and 50s in South Korea had a significant quantity of cryptocurrency assets.
Upbit and Bithumb, the region’s two largest crypto exchanges, provided the figures. According to average data, the 40-50 age bracket accounted for approximately 52 percent of total users on both platforms.
The data shows the 2018 crypto boom among 20 and 30-year-olds, while the present main participants are 40 and 50-year-olds with significant financial power and stock exchange expertise.
Both candidates’ doctrines may have appealed to a considerably more significant number than they thought, making the election’s outcome even more important.