South Korea Proposes Interim Stablecoin Licensing to Accelerate Market Regulation

A policy report published July 29 by Hashed Open Research and the Solana Policy Institute recommends that South Korean regulators issue interim stablecoin licensing guidance before lawmakers complete the wider Digital Asset Basic Act. The advisory targets the licensing gap on issuer eligibility, permitted activities, and payment services. As reported by Crypto News, the report positions interim rules as a prerequisite for any won-backed stablecoin market to clear attestation standards.

Interim framework, phased rollout

The document summarises a June 23 symposium attended by lawmakers, lawyers, and digital-asset industry participants. Core recommendation: sequenced regulation. Stablecoin issuance, payment-rails integration, and foreign-token circulation to Korean users are addressed in three separate tracks rather than bundled into the comprehensive framework.

Bae, Kim & Lee partner Kim Hyo-bong cites the European Union's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation as a structural precedent. MiCA's stablecoin provisions began applying on June 30, 2024, six months before the broader framework reached full applicability. The sequencing is the point: stablecoin-specific rules can take effect ahead of market-structure legislation without procedural conflict.

Ownership structure under negotiation

Democratic Party lawmaker Ahn Do-geol confirmed policymakers are considering a bank-led ownership compromise. Proposed split: banks retain more than 50 percent of any issuer; a fintech or non-bank partner holds 34 percent with management rights. The structure has not been adopted. It remains part of negotiation.

The Bank of Korea backs the bank-led model on monetary, foreign-exchange, and financial-stability grounds. Officials have flagged won-to-USD-stablecoin conversion as a risk to capital-flow management. Critics of strict bank control argue the structure narrows competition and concentrates collateralization within domestic banking balance sheets.

Status of the Digital Asset Basic Act

The Financial Services Commission told the National Assembly ahead of a July 29 policy briefing that it is preparing a consolidated Digital Asset Basic Act jointly with the ruling Democratic Party. Ten digital-asset and stablecoin proposals are pending. No filing date or final wording has been announced.

The existing Virtual Asset User Protection Act governs custody, unfair trading, and customer safeguards. Issuer eligibility, exchange conduct, disclosure obligations, internal controls, and system resilience are reserved for the second-stage framework. Until the Basic Act takes effect, won-backed stablecoin issuance operates without dedicated licensing criteria or reserve-attestation requirements.

Systemic read

South Korea's interim-guidance push is procedural, not legislative. It targets the licensing void between the 2024 User Protection Act and the unfinished Basic Act. For USDT and other dollar-pegged issuers, exposure is indirect: a bank-dominated Korean stablecoin market would channel fiat-equivalent liquidity through domestic banking partners rather than offshore reserve channels. The unresolved structural question is whether Korean won stablecoins will operate on segregated reserves with disclosed attestation, or under bank-balance-sheet collateralization with regulatory reporting only. The interim report does not answer this. The Digital Asset Basic Act must.