The federal government and the ruling social gathering have determined to debate the federal government’s proposal for the Fundamental Act on Digital Property (Part 2 cryptocurrency regulation), which incorporates the introduction of a won-denominated stablecoin, on Jan. 20. The federal government has established a coverage to initially allow issuance by bank-led consortiums (holding 50% + 1 share), however with the ruling Democratic Occasion of Korea’s Digital Asset Process Drive (TF) expressing opposition, a troublesome course of is anticipated till the ultimate phases.
Based on the monetary business on Jan. 11, the federal government and the ruling social gathering are scheduled to carry a closed-door assembly on Jan. 20 to debate the federal government’s proposal for the Fundamental Act on Digital Property. Beforehand, the Monetary Providers Fee had reported its coordination plan on key problems with the fundamental act, such because the entities eligible to situation stablecoins, to the Nationwide Meeting’s Nationwide Coverage Committee.
Based on the coordination plan, the FSC plans to grant issuance eligibility to bank-led consortiums, emphasizing stability within the preliminary part of the system’s introduction, after which steadily broaden the vary of issuers. As a substitute, to deal with considerations that bank-led issuance may hinder innovation, it was determined to acknowledge know-how corporations as the most important shareholders within the consortiums. Consequently, it seems that the formation of consortiums will likely be potential the place a number of banks take part with divided stakes, and a know-how firm like Kakao holds the most important share.
The plan is for issuance approval and whole issuance quantity to be mentioned via a council of associated companies, together with the FSC, the Ministry of Financial system and Finance, and the Financial institution of Korea. The minimal paid-in capital for issuers has been set at 5 billion received, the identical degree as for the digital foreign money issuance enterprise.
The coordination plan additionally features a provision to impose a punitive nice equal to 10% of income if a hacking incident happens at a digital asset trade. This can be a degree that considerably exceeds the dimensions of fines for hacking incidents at monetary corporations beneath the Digital Monetary Transactions Act. At the moment, an modification to the Digital Monetary Transactions Act has been proposed within the Nationwide Meeting that may enable for fines of as much as 3% of income to be imposed on monetary corporations the place hacking incidents happen. An possession dispersion commonplace to restrict the stake of main shareholders in digital asset exchanges to a degree of 15-20% can be beneath dialogue.
If an settlement is reached between the federal government and the ruling social gathering on this coordination plan, the laws may acquire momentum. Within the 2026 Financial Progress Technique introduced collectively by associated ministries on Jan. 9, the federal government determined to course of the invoice for the Fundamental Act on Digital Property inside the first quarter and proceed with numerous associated regulation amendments within the second half of the yr. Particularly, it’s going to proceed with laws for stablecoin issuance within the first quarter and amend legal guidelines such because the International Change Transactions Act within the second half of the yr to determine a framework for regulating cross-border stablecoin transactions. An official from the federal government acknowledged, “Velocity is essential for the Part 2 regulation, together with the won-denominated stablecoin,” and added, “We intend to discover a resolution as a lot as potential via consultations between the social gathering and the federal government.”
Nonetheless, a variable is the numerous disagreement between the federal government and the ruling social gathering relating to the entities eligible to situation the won-denominated stablecoin. An official from the Democratic Occasion’s Digital Asset TF mentioned, “We’re against consortiums the place the banks’ stake exceeds half,” and acknowledged, “Frictions are anticipated within the strategy of a joint evaluation of the federal government’s invoice and the lawmakers’ invoice.”
