South Korean Ruling Party to Issue NFTs for Donations in Election Campaign

Adding another feather to the NFT cap, the reigning party of South Korea, known as the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), has decided to issue non-fungible tokens (NFTs) for raising funds in the presidential campaign. 

DPK is all set to become the first-ever political party to authorize an NFT while a member of the parliament from the party itself, will receive donations from supporters in crypto money.

According to the DPK’s presidential nominee Lee Jae-myung’s committee, the party will roll out NFTs incorporating pictures and other unique collectibles from Lee Jae-myung’s political campaign starting this month. The party asserted that the NFTs will feature as a kind of distinctive bond, which could be swapped with other digital assets in the future. 

There is no doubt that the NFT market has skyrocketed over the years, with the expansion featuring in government and political party’s agendas. This most recent cryptocurrency sensation has been able to attract a significant amount of attention while converting collectibles into digital masterpieces that are rare and authorized for trade.  

DPK lawmaker Lee Kwang-jae announced on Thursday that this uncommon fundraising scheme will commence sometime in the middle of January. While the supporters are expected to donate the money to the party, they will, in return, receive receipts of the donations in the build of an NFT. According to Kwang-jae, the presidential nominee is seemingly prepping for the NFT fundraiser too. 

The party has been very careful about violating any former acts on election campaigns. The DPK stressed the fact that the National Election Commission of South Korea approved of fund collection via NFTs the previous month, and that in no way is the Political Funds Act refuted. According to the party representative, DPK has been in discussion with NEC for more than 8 months. The sponsorship money will be handled in obedience to the Public Offical Election Act and the Guidelines on Management of Political Funds.

Ex-Minister of Small and Mid-size enterprises (SMEs) and Startups Park Young-sun, who currently looks over the digitalization procedures at the DPK’s election campaign committee, previously steered DPK’s virtual asset-favorable policy. She had authorized an NFT on one of her Facebook posts published in 2018, wherein she resisted the crackdown of cryptocurrency exchanges. 

The ruling party of South Korea, DPK, has been an active supporter of the crypto space. The party’s presidential candidate vouches for the utilization of NFTs in the gaming industry. Recently in an interview with a Youtuber, Lee Jae-myung stated that Korea is looking forward to being the flagbearer of this rising trend of combining digital tokens and NFTs with games. 

In a study performed in South Korea in November last year, over forty percent of the people who responded (aged between twenty to forty years) claimed that they had participated in the crypto space as investors.