According to online news sources, a South Korean presidential candidate has announced that he will use non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to raise funds for his presidential campaign. The candidate, Lee Jae-Myung, belongs to the Democratic Party. He is a prime candidate in the upcoming 2022 presidential elections of the country. As per the information received from the party sources, the Democratic Party will be issuing non-fungible tokens to those people who donate money for Lee Jae-Myung’s presidential campaign. It has been found that the NFTs will be featuring the images of Lee Jae-Myung, besides his pledges.
The campaign official, Kim Nam-kook, gave an interview soon after the announcement in which he said that through this move, the party is trying to increase its appeal among the younger generations. He added that most of the people in their 20s and early 30s are gaining interest in new technologies. This includes metaverse, NFTs, and virtual assets. The party believes that this NFT campaign can help them in roping in the younger people to vote in their favor.
The party is constantly looking for different ways to make use of the new technologies. Besides using NFTs in campaigns, the Democratic Party is also considering accepting donations in the form of cryptocurrencies. The news sources say that another party member Lee Kwang-jae recently announced that he would accept crypto donations from the people, starting mid-January.
Even though the party is positive about the move, there are concerns that the NFT fundraiser could violate the Public Official Election Act or the Political Funds Act. Although the financial regular of the country had also clarified in November that it would not be regulating the NFTs, it later backpedaled on its decision. The Financial Services Commission announced that starting from January 2022, NFTs would be taxable.
