South Korea’s government is seeking to bring digital assets under existing finance rules, including classifying stablecoins as foreign exchange instruments and requiring tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) to be backed by assets held in trust, according to a draft bill seen by local outlet the Seoul Economic Daily.
Last week, the Seoul Economic Daily reported that it had obtained a draft of the long-awaited “Digital Asset Basic Act,” produced by South Korea’s ruling Democratic Party’s Digital Asset Task Force. The bill has been in the works for some time, having been delayed by various disagreements.
On December 31, 2025, Yonhap News reported that disagreements over stablecoin oversight and issuer requirements had pushed the release of the bill into this year.
Based on the latest draft, South Korean lawmakers appear to be heading down the route of integrating certain digital assets, namely stablecoins and tokenized RWAs, into existing financial law, rather than bespoke regimes.
Stablecoins under foreign exchange rules
According to the Seoul Economic Daily report, the draft bill includes provisions to classify stablecoins used in cross-border transactions as means of payment under the country’s foreign exchange regulations, the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act.
As such, businesses handling stablecoins would be subject to the supervision of foreign exchange authorities, without requiring separate registration.
Stablecoins are not yet governed by a dedicated regime in South Korea; they are treated as “virtual assets” under existing laws—such as the Act on the Protection of Virtual Asset Users, which came into law in 2023—with anti-money laundering (AML) and countering the financing of terrorism (CFT) standards, exchange registration, and reporting obligations applying.
The current obligations are also largely intermediary-focused, requiring exchanges to register, implement AML and know-your-customer (KYC) checks, and monitor transactions. Issuers, meanwhile, face relatively limited oversight.
If brought under the country’s Foreign Exchange Transactions Act, obligations would shift to issuer- and system-level control, including issuers potentially needing central bank or financial regulator authorization, reserve requirements, mandatory backing with high-quality liquid assets, prudential rules similar to payment institutions or banks, legal obligation to redeem at par, and cross-border controls, such as reporting or approvals for international transfers.
However, the bill reportedly includes an exception clause that exempts foreign exchange reporting obligations for payments made within a certain range as consideration for goods or services. The supposed intention of this would be to allow routine payment activities while maintaining a management system for large-scale capital movements.
The draft also reportedly touched on the contentious matter of stablecoin yield, which has caused much debate in the United States in particular, as the GENIUS Act—stablecoin regulation passed in the U.S. last year—prohibits stablecoin issuers from offering any form of interest or yield to stablecoin holders, much to the chagrin of the industry and its advocates in Congress.
Likewise, South Korea’s draft bill would also prohibit the payment of interest to stablecoin holders.
Another of the bill’s reported stablecoin provisions would require South Korea’s Financial Services Commission (FSC), the country’s top finance sector regulator, to establish technical standards to ensure interoperability within the digital asset ecosystem.
According to the report, this reflects concerns that liquidity could be fragmented if Korean won stablecoins are issued across numerous different blockchains.
This is consistent with concerns voiced earlier this January by Bank of Korea Governor Lee Chang-yong, who warned that Korean won-denominated stablecoins could complicate capital-flow management and foreign exchange stability.
Underlying assets of tokenized RWAs must be held in trust
On the subject of tokenized RWAs, the draft reportedly includes provisions stating that any person intending to issue tokenized RWAs must hold the linked assets in a managed trust, pursuant to the country’s Capital Markets Act, with the details to be determined by presidential decree, said the Seoul Economic Daily.
The status of tokenized RWAs in South Korea has been evolving. Security-like tokens already fall under the Capital Markets Act and must be issued via licensed intermediaries, while broader digital asset activity is governed by AML, licensing, and investor-protection regimes.
The proposed new rules would require issuers to place linked assets in managed trusts under the Capital Markets Act, further tying tokenized asset issuance to existing custody frameworks.
The draft bill has not yet been officially released, and lawmakers have not commented on Wednesday’s Seoul Economic Daily report, so the details outlined cannot be fully verified. Equally, as a draft, it may be subject to change before the final version is published.
However, if the reports are accurate, it appears South Korea’s future regulatory regime for digital assets may be more about bringing them into existing frameworks than creating new ones.
Watch | Tokenization on public blockchain: Transforming RWAs and finance
Source: https://coingeek.com/south-korea-draft-crypto-bill-covers-stablecoins-rwas/
