South Korea’s Democratic Party plans to ask financial regulators to review banned spot Bitcoin ETFs

South Korea’s left-wing Democratic Party plans to ask financial regulators to review currently banned spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds, according to a South Korean news report. This marks the party’s next move to make spot Bitcoin funds locally available. The opposition Democratic Party scored a major victory in the general election in April, winning 175 of the 300 seats in the local legislature, while the ruling Conservative Party won 108 seats. The party had promised to allow local financial institutions to launch spot crypto ETFs and allow retail investors to purchase these funds through tax-free accounts.

The Democratic Party plans to ask the Financial Services Commission, the country’s top financial regulator, to review spot Bitcoin ETFs once South Korea’s 22nd National Assembly opens in June, aiming to open up such products locally, a report from BloomingBit quoted a member as saying.

The FSC reportedly concluded that there is no legal basis to show that Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies can be used as underlying assets for such products, and therefore the issuance or trading of spot Bitcoin ETFs is not currently allowed. $BTC #etf上线 #BTC