South Korea is moving to widen institutional access to digital finance through a three-part programme covering cryptocurrency accounts for about 3,500 companies, legal recognition for tokenised securities and deposit-token trials involving nine banks.
Andrew Park, chief executive of FACTBLOCK and organiser of Korea Blockchain Week, said the country’s crypto market was beginning to move beyond its long-standing dependence on retail trading. Financial institutions are increasingly focusing on custody, tokenisation, stablecoins, settlement infrastructure and regulatory compliance.
The programme brings together three related areas of financial activity. Companies are preparing to enter the crypto market under rules set by the Financial Services Commission (FSC), securities firms are developing systems for tokenised assets, and the Bank of Korea is testing digital bank deposits with programmable payment conditions.
Under an FSC roadmap published in February 2025, about 2,500 listed companies and roughly 1,000 corporations registered as professional investors were expected to gain access to real-name bank accounts connected to crypto exchanges.
Financial companies were excluded from the proposed group. For eligible corporations, access was intended to operate as a controlled pilot rather than an unrestricted opening of the market.
Korean companies have effectively been unable to trade virtual assets through domestic exchanges since 2017 because banks have not supplied the real-name accounts required for such activity. Although the restriction was not set out as an explicit statutory ban, the account rules prevented most corporate funds from entering the market.
The FSC initially granted limited account access to non-profit organisations, universities, law-enforcement bodies and crypto exchanges. Those institutions were allowed to sell virtual assets acquired through donations, criminal seizures or exchange fees, but they could not use the first-stage arrangements for general investment.
Listed companies and registered professional investors were chosen for the next stage because regulators considered them more capable of evaluating investment risk. Officials also pointed to corporate interest in blockchain businesses and digital-asset investments.
Korean media reports said later guidance considered an annual investment limit equivalent to 5% of a company’s equity capital. Purchases were expected to be restricted to the 20 largest cryptocurrencies by market value across South Korea’s five major exchanges. Regulators were still weighing whether dollar-backed stablecoins, including Tether’s USDT, should be included.
Greater corporate access is also creating demand for regulated custody services. On 18 August, BitGo Korea secured virtual asset service provider registration from the Korea Financial Intelligence Unit, allowing it to develop crypto custody and transfer services for institutions and businesses.
Hana Financial Group owns 25% of BitGo Korea and SK Telecom holds a 10% stake. BitGo has not announced when its services will launch, which assets will be supported, how much custody will cost or which clients it will serve.
Tokenised securities move into the regulated market
South Korea has also established a legal pathway for issuing and trading tokenised securities.
The National Assembly approved amendments to the Electronic Securities Act and Capital Markets Act on 15 January 2026. The measures were promulgated on 3 February and are due to come into force on 4 February 2027, according to a legal summary published by Kim & Chang.
The amended Electronic Securities Act will allow distributed ledgers to act as legally recognised records for securities issuance. Issuers will still have to complete registration procedures involving the Korea Securities Depository (KSD), rather than relying on blockchain records as a separate ownership system outside regulation.
Changes to the Capital Markets Act will also bring investment-contract securities and fractional investment products into the regulated market. Licensed intermediaries will be able to manage distribution, while over-the-counter trading will be governed by rules being prepared by financial authorities.
Work on the necessary infrastructure has already begun. Samsung SDS won a contract to convert the Korea Securities Depository’s test system into a production-ready platform for tokenised securities.
The KSD expects the platform to link distributed-ledger data with its existing electronic securities accounts. Planned capabilities include recording issuance, checking circulation, managing rights and monitoring token volumes in real time. Completion is expected by February 2027.
In August, Shinhan Bank and Plume also began an offshore proof of concept involving a won-denominated tokenised fund backed by ultra-short-term bonds. The trial excludes Korean residents and will not issue or distribute tokens. Instead, it is being used to examine whitelist controls, know-your-customer checks, anti-money-laundering procedures and on-chain operations before the domestic legislation takes effect.
The Korean approach differs administratively from the US system, but it follows the principle that placing a financial instrument on a blockchain does not take it outside securities law. In a January 2026 staff statement, the US Securities and Exchange Commission divided tokenised securities into issuer-backed and third-party models, while warning that market participants might still require registrations, proposals or regulatory relief.
SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce previously said “tokenized securities are still securities,” and added that distributors, buyers and trading platforms must consider federal disclosure and market rules.
South Korea’s framework similarly keeps tokenised instruments within its existing securities system, with the KSD responsible for formal registration.
Bank of Korea expands deposit-token testing
A separate strand of the country’s digital-finance programme is being developed by the Bank of Korea through Project Hangang. The project combines wholesale central-bank money with deposit tokens issued by commercial banks.
Deposit tokens are digital representations of bank deposits, rather than cryptocurrencies issued directly by a central bank for consumers. Commercial banks issue the tokens to customers, while tokenised central-bank money is used to settle transfers between participating banks.
During Phase I, which started in April 2025, about 80,000 of the 100,000 invited users opened wallets. They carried out approximately 118,000 payment transactions, although the total value was below 700 million won.
Phase II began in March 2026 with nine banks. BNK Kyongnam Bank and iM Bank joined KB Kookmin, Shinhan, Woori, Hana, NH Nonghyup, IBK Industrial Bank and BNK Busan Bank.
The second phase includes person-to-person transfers, biometric approval for payments and automatic conversion between standard deposits and deposit tokens. The Bank of Korea is also expanding digital vouchers and testing programmable controls for government spending.
Grants for electric-vehicle charging infrastructure and public-sector operating costs are among the first intended uses for public payments. According to the Bank of Korea, payment conditions can determine which recipient is allowed to spend the money, where it can be accepted and how long it remains available.
A separate deposit-token payment project worth 9.6bn won, or about $6.9m, began in July under the Korea Internet & Security Agency and the Ministry of Science and ICT.
Nine banks, eight payment companies and two major merchants are taking part in the consortium, which is led by the Korea Financial Telecommunications and Clearings Institute. The programme will connect deposit tokens to existing payment networks so merchants can process transactions without replacing all of their terminals.
Participating organisations said the trial would assess whether the system could reduce processing fees for small businesses.
Project Hangang has also examined payments initiated by artificial-intelligence agents. LG CNS demonstrated an agentic payment service in January 2026 using deposit tokens on the Bank of Korea’s infrastructure.
Under the proposed model, an AI agent can search for a product or service, check conditions set by the user and complete payment through a tokenised bank deposit.
The Bank of Korea said it would continue examining deposit tokens both for AI-agent services and as settlement money for tokenised bonds and shares. Because payment conditions can be built into the system, transactions can be completed only after a specified action or market condition has occurred.
At the European Central Bank Forum in July, Bank of Korea Governor Hyun Song Shin said “the big prize is tokenizing government bonds.” He described a unified ledger on which tokenised bonds, commercial-bank deposit tokens and wholesale central-bank money could operate together.
The Bank of Korea has also linked Project Hangang to the Bank for International Settlements’ Project Agora. In 2026, South Korea completed tests connecting its digital-currency system to the cross-border platform, including real-value transactions using tokenised central-bank reserves across six currencies.
