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South Korea's ruling Democratic Party is preparing an integrated draft of a Digital Asset Basic Act that would place stablecoin and tokenized real world asset activity under existing financial law rather than a standalone regime. Cointelegraph reported on April 8, citing Seoul Economic Daily, that the draft would treat stablecoins used in cross-border transactions as a means of payment under the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act and require issuers of tokenized RWAs to place underlying assets in managed trusts under the Capital Markets Act. Cointelegraph said it could not independently verify the provisions through a public National Assembly filing.
What the draft reportedly includes
The Financial Services Commission would set interoperability standards across digital asset networks. Some stablecoin payments for goods and services could be exempted from foreign exchange reporting within a defined scope. Issuers would be barred from paying interest on value-stable digital assets. The approach tracks concerns raised by Bank of Korea Governor Lee Chang-yong, who said in January that won-denominated stablecoins could complicate capital flow management and FX stability.
Why existing law matters here
The draft would anchor RWA tokenization in statutes already used for capital markets and cross-border payment oversight. The Foreign Exchange Transactions Act governs FX transactions in Korea, while the Capital Markets Act sits within the FSC's statutory framework. The broader Digital Asset Basic Act process has already stalled over disputes about stablecoin oversight and issuance eligibility, as CoinDesk and Yahoo Finance reported last year.
Context: Capital Markets Act amendments already in effect
A March 2026 Chambers legal review said multiple digital asset bills had been submitted in the National Assembly and that amendments to the Capital Markets Act taking effect on February 3, 2026 were designed to facilitate wider tokenized asset transactions in Korea. The reported requirement that tokenized RWA issuers use managed trusts for underlying assets would be a concrete compliance condition on top of that, if confirmed in a filed bill.
Where things stand
No public filing exists yet. For firms assessing Korean stablecoin or RWA structures, the reporting gives a clearer signal of how lawmakers may map those activities onto FX and capital markets law. But until a bill is formally introduced, none of this is binding.
