South Korea’s Game-Changing Move: Crypto Firms Now Classified as Startups for Major Tax Breaks & Benefits

South Korea just handed crypto entrepreneurs a golden ticket—reclassifying blockchain ventures as official startups, complete with juicy tax incentives and regulatory perks.

Breaking the mold: No more second-class status for crypto. The government's pivot signals a full-throttle embrace of digital assets—while traditional finance scrambles to keep up.

Behind the policy shift: A calculated play to dominate Asia's crypto hub race. Tax cuts? Check. Faster licensing? Double-check. Suddenly, Seoul looks shinier than Singapore for blockchain builders.

The fine print: Not all tokens get a free pass. Regulators are still wielding the KYC hammer—because even in a crypto revolution, bureaucrats gotta bureaucrat.

Wall Street won't like this: While TradFi brokers nickel-and-dime clients with 2% management fees, crypto startups are getting government-subsidized rocket fuel. How's that for disruptive?

South Korea’s new pro-crypto stance

This policy amendment is in line with several pro-crypto initiatives launched by the government under South Korea’s new president, Lee Jae-myung. Since being sworn into office last month, Lee has pledged to support cryptocurrency assets backed by the South Korean Won and allow the nation’s pension fund to invest up to $884 billion in cryptocurrency.

In addition, Lee is working towards lifting the ban on crypto-backed exchange-traded funds. His administration hopes to allow trading for spot Bitcoin (BTC) ETFs by the second half of this year.

At the moment South Korea’s Democratic Party, the party that elected Lee as president, is currently pushing regulators to pass a working draft for the country’s first stablecoin bill dubbed “Basic Act on Digital Assets.”