South Korea to bring digital assets under new state asset management system

Digital Assets and IP to Enter State Asset Management

South Korea’s Economy ministry plans to include digital assets and intellectual property under the country’s new state-asset management framework.

Report from South Korea’s Ministry of Finance and Economy. Source: mofe.go.kr

On Tuesday, South Korea’s government unveiled its 2026 Economic Growth Strategy for the Second Half, which includes plans to conduct a 2027 pilot linking tokenized government bonds to its central bank digital currency (CBDC) infrastructure.

The plan calls for authorities to study how to make the Bank of Korea’s (BOK) CBDC infrastructure interoperable with other blockchains. The idea was first outlined publicly on July 1 by BOK Governor Hyun Song Shin at the European Central Bank Forum on Central Banking.

Authorities plan to introduce measures later this year and said the pilot would form part of a broader effort to create a “blockchain economy.”

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On April 16, South Korea’s MOEF announced a pilot project that will use tokenized deposits to execute government operational spending, with a full rollout set for the fourth quarter of 2026.

Regulatory Framework Changes

Changes to South Korea’s Capital Markets Act and Electronic Securities Act, the country’s first tokenized securities framework, are scheduled to take full effect on Feb. 4, 2027.

The framework will legally recognize blockchain-ledgers as valid securities registries, bringing tokenized assets under the Financial Services Commission’s jurisdiction out of their current experimental stage.

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