08-05-2026 
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South Korea’s Financial Services Commission (FSC) is planning to draft a consolidated Digital Asset Basic Act with the ruling Democratic Party, which would cover stablecoins and digital asset exchanges, while opposition lawmakers seek to repeal the 22% digital currency tax due in 2027.
According to the FSC, the proposal would include stablecoin issuance and circulation, digital asset business rules, exchange entry requirements, disclosures, internal controls, and system-resilience standards.
Ten separate digital asset and stablecoin bills is still pending in Parliament, while disagreements have prevented South Korea from advancing key elements of its second-stage digital currency legislation.
The FSC has yet to announce when or how the consolidated bill will be introduced. Ongoing debates exist regarding whether banks should primarily own won-denominated stablecoin issuers and whether ownership restrictions should be placed on major digital currency exchanges.
Meanwhile, the National Assembly’s Finance and Economic Planning Committee is scheduled to review the opposition bill to abolish South Korea’s digital currency income tax, which is set to take effect next year.
South Korean Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Koo Yun-Cheol reiterated that the government plans to implement taxation of income from digital currency by next year, KBS World reported.
Starting January 1, 2027, digital asset gains that exceed KRW 2.5 million ($1,700) annually will be subject to a separate 22% tax rate as other income, Koo said at a plenary session of the National Assembly Finance, Economy, Planning and Budget Committee.
Koo clarified that losses from digital currency investments in stocks will not qualify as digital currency losses for tax deductions and added that any required adjustments will be evaluated once the tax system is implemented.
A separate repeal petition, supported by 50,000 individuals, is expected to be presented to a petitions subcommittee. However, no subcommittee has been fully constituted, and no review dates have been set.
The South Korean government and the ruling Democratic Party support implementing the tax, while the opposition argues that taxing digital currency while ordinary stock investors remain exempt is unfair. The Finance Ministry said that the tax would proceed after several delays.
The amendment to the Income Tax Act was introduced on March 19 by People’s Party lawmaker Song Eon-seok. The amendment aims to remove the provision that imposes taxes on income generated from the transfer and lending of digital currencies.
South Korea’s probe into digital currency regulation
Apart from stablecoins, South Korea is also exploring central bank digital currency (CBDC). Recently, the country’s central bank—the Bank of Korea (BoK)—announced it is launching Phase 2 of its CBDC, with nine banks participating and a user cap of over 500,000 for live deposit token testing. It will take over as early as September if system development and participant recruitment preparations are completed.
“The Bank of Korea will provide the infrastructure for the institutional CBDC, and each bank will conduct its own business with deposit tokens. [Adding] from the second phase, we will lay the groundwork for commercialization,” a Bank of Korea official told Yonhap News.
This news follows the appointment of Shin Hyun-song as the new governor of the country’s central bank, who began his four-year term by highlighting four priorities, one of which is supporting CBDCs and tokenized deposits, as part of an effort to internationalize the won and innovate the currency regime.
Shin outlined that in a globalized and digitalized financial environment, “safeguarding trust in money and the stability of payments and settlements is also the Central Bank’s mission of the era.”
To achieve this, the BoK governor said that: “Through Phase two of Project Han River, we will increase the usability of CBDC and deposit tokens, and through international cooperation such as the Agorá Project, we will enhance the won’s standing even in a digital payments environment.”
Watch: CBDCs or Stablecoins? What the Industry Leaders Actually Think
