Stablecoins are about to go fully legal inside South Korea's payment system. The Bank of Korea and the government plan to rewrite the country's foreign exchange law this year so stablecoins officially count as payment instruments.
Key points:
- South Korea's government and the Bank of Korea will jointly draft a bill this year amending the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act to cover stablecoins as a means of payment.
- The change brings cross-border digital-asset transfers under forex rules, with a monitoring framework for virtual assets added alongside.
- The move answers a National Assembly audit push for global-standard payment infrastructure and tighter anti-money-laundering safeguards.
According to a report by local outlet Digital Asset, the central bank said it is coordinating with the government on measures to regulate cross-border transactions in digital assets. The plan is for the Bank of Korea and the government to prepare the bill together within this year. The forex law amendment will treat stablecoins as a means of payment, and a separate monitoring framework for virtual assets will be built alongside it.
The move comes in response to last year's National Assembly audit, where lawmakers asked the Bank of Korea to lift local payment infrastructure to global standards — including extending the operating hours of large-value payment systems to 8 p.m. — and to build measures against money laundering risks linked to the entry of global crypto exchanges into the country.
Read also: South Korea's 22% Crypto Tax Faces New Fight — Exchanges Meet Tuesday?
What happens next?
The Bank of Korea also said it will focus on building an international cooperation framework to fight illegal digital-asset transactions, warning that mixers and unhosted wallets make cross-border flows harder to track. The step runs parallel to South Korea's bigger Digital Asset Basic Act, the comprehensive crypto framework bill whose chairman Lee Eog-weon said this week that discussions are nearing completion, with introduction planned as soon as possible.
Until that full framework is in place, the central bank says it will keep consulting ministries to close temporary gaps and stop regulatory arbitrage. For traders, this is a slow but powerful tailwind: a country with one of Asia's largest crypto markets is putting won-linked stablecoins on the same legal footing as ordinary foreign-currency payments. Watch for the draft bill text and any first licensed won-pegged payment stablecoins.
Read also: Malaysia and Thailand Join Singapore's BLOOM Cross-Border Stablecoin Push — What Happens Next?
— Crypto News Daily News Desk
This post is news only, not financial advice. Always do your own research before buying or selling crypto.
Sources: The Block, Digital Asset
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