South Korea's ruling Democratic Party has reportedly included provisions in its draft Digital Asset Basic Act that would bring tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) and stablecoins under the country's existing financial regulatory frameworks. According to reports from the Seoul Economic Daily, the proposed legislation represents a significant shift toward integrating digital assets into established legal structures rather than creating entirely new regulatory regimes.
The draft bill would require issuers of tokenized RWAs to deposit the underlying assets into managed trusts as prescribed under the Capital Markets Act. This approach aims to tie on-chain instruments to clearly ring-fenced underlying assets, addressing investor protection concerns that often arise with tokenized financial products.
For stablecoins, the proposal would classify those used in cross-border transactions as "means of payment" under the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act, placing related businesses under regulatory oversight even without separate registration. The draft reportedly includes provisions that would exempt certain stablecoin payments for goods and services from foreign exchange reporting requirements within a defined scope, while also barring issuers from paying interest to holders of value-stable digital assets regardless of how such incentives are labeled.
The reported approach aligns with earlier concerns raised by South Korea's central bank. On January 27, Bank of Korea Governor Lee Chang-yong warned that Korean won-denominated stablecoins could complicate capital-flow management and foreign exchange stability, adding to the debate over how domestic stablecoins should be regulated.
The timing of this development is critical, as delays to the Digital Asset Basic Act are already straining local blockchain companies. Some firms have developed stablecoin infrastructure expecting legislation to pass earlier but cannot launch commercial operations because the legal basis remains unfinished. Key issues like exchange ownership limits and bank-related requirements for stablecoin issuers were reportedly not included in the current draft, reflecting broader disagreements over stablecoin oversight that had previously delayed the legislation.
The Financial Services Commission would be required to establish technical standards aimed at ensuring interoperability across digital asset networks if the bill becomes law. For South Korea's digital asset sector, the question has shifted from whether regulation is coming to what kind of regulatory architecture will emerge first, and whether it arrives quickly enough for domestic firms to use it before momentum moves elsewhere.
