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 the currently banned spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds, according to a South Korean coverage. This marks the party's next move to make spot bitcoin funds available locally. The opposition Democratic Party scored a major victory in April's general election, 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 Institution Group to launch spot crypto ETFs and allow retail investors to buy the funds through tax-free accounts.
A BloomingBit report quoted a member as saying that once South Korea's 22nd National Assembly opens in June, the Democratic Party plans to ask the country's top financial regulator, the Financial Services Commission, to re-examine spot bitcoin ETFs, with the aim of opening up such products locally.
According to reports, the FSC has concluded that there is no legal basis to suggest that Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies can serve as the underlying asset for such products, and therefore it is currently not allowed to issue or trade spot Bitcoin ETFs.