Pether (14)
With this year’s presidential election looming, the parties were deep into their internal primaries.
Im Chang-sik, who had once been talked about as the natural heir to the next presidency, was now in the middle of a free fall after the GL Chemical and GL Entech fiascos.
In his place, Namgung Seok, a three-term lawmaker and former professor, had surged to the front of the pack.
Even so, Im Chang-sik was far from finished.
When he stepped down as party leader and formally declared his candidacy, the ruling faction inside the Woori Kookmin Party closed ranks around him.
So while Namgung Seok enjoyed stronger public support, Im Chang-sik still led among party members.
For now, neither side could confidently claim victory.
Before the primary debate, he met with Supreme Council member Park Seong-ju to discuss strategy.
“Namgung Seok’s approval numbers keep climbing. What do you think we should do?”
“You’re still strong with older voters. But Namgung Seok is far ahead with younger voters. If you want to lock this thing down, you need to win the young.”
“And how exactly do you propose we do that?”
“There is one way, but...”
“Spit it out already. You’re killing me here.”
Park Seong-ju deliberately dragged it out for a moment longer, then said, “We make a pledge on cryptocurrency.”
Im Chang-sik tilted his head.
“Huh? Crypto? You mean those coin things? Would that even help us with votes? How many people are really into that?”
“This is why you’re not popular with young people, sir.”
“What?”
“There are 15.3 million domestic users registered on exchanges, and 5.6 million people are actually trading. Most of them are in their twenties through forties, and naturally, there are no minors. In other words, one out of every three voters is either investing in crypto or paying attention to it.”
“R-really?”
His ears perked up at once.
“Haven’t you seen the articles saying crypto trading volume has already overtaken stock trading volume? For young people now, the way to build wealth isn’t stocks — it’s cryptocurrency. So if we go after that angle, we can win over the younger generation.”
Im Chang-sik nodded.
“Good. Draft me a pledge.”
The first primary debate of the Woori Kookmin Party.
There, Im Chang-sik and Namgung Seok clashed fiercely. The biggest issue by far was cryptocurrency regulation.
Im Chang-sik opened the offensive first.
“If we ease cryptocurrency regulation, virtual assets can be used as the underlying assets for related derivatives and other financial products, and the market will grow accordingly. In the United States and Singapore, traditional financial institutions are already investing in crypto startups and creating exchange-traded funds, or ETFs, and futures tied to cryptocurrency. But in Korea, regulations have tied our hands, and we can’t do anything. If we lift those restrictions and allow ICOs, the crypto market will grow healthily, just like the stock market. If I become president, I will give cryptocurrency my full support.”
Namgung Seok, however, made his opposition clear.
“Financial phenomena arise for a reason. I agree that we must accept that reality and seek ways to minimize the side effects. But the current cryptocurrency market has already devolved into a pure gambling pit. In that situation, to say, ‘We’ll exempt your taxes and ease the regulations, so go ahead and invest,’ borders on deception.”
“Then what are you saying we should do?”
“First, we need to clean up the exchanges. We should move to a licensing system, allow only licensed exchanges to operate, and shut down the rest. We should also conduct internal audits, delist any coin that fails to meet standards or has engaged in unfair practices, protect users, and make the exchanges bear responsibility for it.”
Namgung Seok’s voice was unyielding.
“Did I not say that the cryptocurrency market has become indistinguishable from speculation? When prices are rising, everything seems harmless, but when they fall, the shock can be enormous. In a situation like this, recklessly loosening regulations is no different from pushing young people to gamble. If someone is heading down the wrong path, then you have to tell them it’s wrong.”
When the debate ended, the Woori Kookmin Party bulletin board exploded with furious posts from investors.
Because of the backlash, Namgung Seok’s approval rating in the polls plunged five percentage points, widening the gap between him and Im Chang-sik beyond the margin of error.
Even within his own camp, many people said an apology would be the wise move, but Namgung Seok would not budge.
By contrast, Im Chang-sik, who now clearly had the upper hand, was jubilant.
If I just win the primary, the presidency is right in front of me!
Supreme Council member Park Seong-ju told him that in moments like this, he needed to push even harder, so Im Chang-sik attended the Virtual Asset Conference hosted by Jojoong Ilbo and announced his platform.
“I will make sure the cryptocurrency market is shielded from regulatory anxiety by fully shifting to a negative regulatory framework. Overseas, countless jobs are already being created around crypto. If I become president, I will enact a basic law for digital assets and establish a Digital Industry Promotion Agency to oversee policies for virtual asset businesses such as cryptocurrency and NFTs. I will impose a complete tax exemption on crypto investment profits, gradually permit ICOs, strengthen investment across the industry, and invigorate the market!”
The young went wild for those pledges, and Im Chang-sik’s approval rating climbed sharply.
But Namgung Seok kept raising his voice, insisting that whether his support rose or fell, the shady exchanges had to be driven out first.
“We need to strengthen supervision over the exchanges immediately and remove unsound exchanges from the market. Until now, those exchanges have made trillions of won in profit, and every last won came out of the pockets of investors who used them. And yet they have taken no responsibility whatsoever for the damage caused by scam coins and the like.”
The issue of cryptocurrency regulation had now become the single biggest point of contention in the primary.
In the second primary debate as well, Im Chang-sik and Namgung Seok clashed head-on.
Im Chang-sik argued for deregulation and support for crypto.
“Policies that focus only on regulation are killing new industries. Cryptocurrency and blockchain are core technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Are we really supposed to let Korea fall behind on this?”
Namgung Seok countered by holding up the data.
“Three years ago, losses from crypto crime came to only 170 billion won. Last year, they had risen to 3 trillion won. Even so, most of the perpetrators have not been punished at all.”
Im Chang-sik then pointed to Saturn Labs and CEO Kang Mundo as a success story.
“Fraud, of course, must be punished. But industry must be supported and nurtured. Look at Saturn and Titan. This algorithm-based stablecoin created by a Korean young man has grown into a 50-billion-dollar project. If Korea had allowed an ICO, we could have drawn in capital from around the world. The ban on ICOs has blocked the development of domestic blockchain technology and driven the wealth created by big tech companies overseas. If we keep going down this all-regulation path, won’t all the coins currently in development simply pivot to Singapore or Switzerland, where ICOs are allowed?”
Namgung Seok fired back.
“I know about Saturn and Titan as you mentioned them. But many experts have pointed out problems with the algorithm. Saturn Labs’ DeFi protocol also raises many questions. It pays an astonishing 24 percent interest. Unless it is simply paying old customers with new customers’ money, how could such a rate even be possible?”
“That is precisely what advanced digital finance is. Saturn and Titan are excellent homegrown coins recognized worldwide, and they operate on a perfect algorithm. To deny that is to dismiss our young people!”
Im Chang-sik was in the middle of raising his voice when the moderator cut in.
“Uh, we’ve just received breaking news: Titan Coin is crashing.”
He shouted in shock.
“W-what do you mean, crashing?”
“The algorithm has collapsed. People are even saying it’s a scam.”
“……”
Im Chang-sik looked as if he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
The moderator kept asking questions, but in his panic he simply stood there with his mouth hanging open and said nothing for a long moment.
The whole thing went out live on air.
For a long time, the users on the Vantcoin Channel had done nothing but curse Namgung Seok.
But once the market crashed, they all changed their tune.
By contrast, criticism poured into Im Chang-sik’s campaign office.
Im Chang-sik was completely stunned.
In truth, he didn’t even really understand what cryptocurrency was. He had only promised looser regulations and more active investment because he thought it would help his approval ratings.
And now the market had just collapsed at exactly the wrong moment.
Bringing up Saturn and Titan, in particular, had been the worst possible move.
After the GL Entech disaster, he had made another bad call, and the younger generation turned away from him first, then the middle-aged and the elderly followed. His approval rating crashed just like a coin.
The lawmakers who had been backing him only days ago quietly began to defect, and before long people were even saying he should step down voluntarily.
How did it come to this?
He had been the universally accepted next president.
Just a few months ago, everything had been going smoothly.
Then, all at once, one thing after another began to go wrong. It felt as though some enormous unseen force was deliberately blocking his path to the presidency.
Where, exactly, had it all started going wrong?
He traced his memory backward.
The reason his support had fallen so sharply as a leading presidential contender was the GL Chemical and GL Entech incident.
If that had never become a problem, he would have been running away with first place.
Instead, his numbers sank, and Namgung Seok’s soared.
Come to think of it...
It was Continue Capital that had triggered that fiasco.
And this time, too, the cryptocurrency crash had begun with an attack from Continue Capital.
By now, he was almost tempted to think they had targeted him on purpose.
Im Chang-sik ground his teeth.
If it weren’t for those bastards at Continue Capital...
Once he became president, he would make sure that filthy speculative capital never set foot in Korea again.
It’s too early to give up.
There would surely be a chance to turn this around.
Power came only to those who hungered for it.
And Im Chang-sik was hungry.
The next president is me. Me!
After making a fool of himself in the debate, Im Chang-sik issued an explanation to reporters a few days later.
“So the core of what I’m saying is that, rather than overregulating like the United States, we should focus on fostering the industry. Cryptocurrency and blockchain are global trends. At the very least, we need to loosen regulations to the level of the United States so that more crypto-related companies can emerge and investors can have more opportunities, don’t you think? We should, like the United States...”
At that moment, one reporter raised a hand and said, “We’ve just gotten breaking news that the United States is moving to impose strong regulations on cryptocurrency.”
“......I’ll take no further questions.”