The ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) will send non-interchangeable digital images featuring presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung''s photos and policies to his supporters, making it the world's first political party to issue non-fungible tokens (NFTs) for fundraising in a presidential election.
The party explained that its NFTs will serve as a kind of bond so that their holders, who donate money to Lee’s election campaign, can exchange the digital assets with other individuals.
The latest fundraising plan followed DPK lawmaker Lee Kwang-jae's announcement that he will start accepting cryptocurrency donations n mid-January and issue NFTs as receipts for donations.
The National Election Commission (NEC) confirmed that fundraising using NFTs does not violate the Political Funds Act or the Public Official Election Act.
Rep. Lee emphasized that the donations will be managed in compliance with the Public Official Election Act and the Guidelines on Management of Political Funds."
As part of efforts to lure voters in their 20s and 30s, the DPK's presidential candidate has been supportive of the game industry's attempts to use NFTs, saying that Korea should lead the global trend of integrating games with virtual assets and NFTs.