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candidate_metadata: candidate_id: “J2F0373” title: “As the trend of digital transformation accelerates in various fields of society at home and abroad” source_name: “매일경제” source_domain: “mk.co.kr” url: “https://mk.co.kr/en/society/12123929” canonical_url: “https://mk.co.kr/en/society/12123929” published: “2026-08-12T00:00:00+09:00” collected: “2026-08-30T22:17:18+00:00” query: “Korean stablecoin regulation” snippet: “As the trend of digital transformation accelerates in various fields of society at home and abroad 매일경제” candidate_id: “J2F0373” title: “As the trend of digital transformation accelerates in various fields of society at home and abroad” source_url: “https://mk.co.kr/en/society/12123929” canonical_url: “https://mk.co.kr/en/society/12123929” source_domain: “mk.co.kr” source_type: “article” author: “이한진 김앤장 법률사무소 변호사” published: “2026-08-12” collected: “2026-08-30” original_language: “english” registered_by: “hermes” registered_at: “2026-08-30T22:17:18Z” collector_note: “스테이블코인의 국내외 법·규제·AML/FIU 통제, 발행 및 준비자산 구조, 결제·송금·정산 인프라, 은행·핀테크 상용화 사례와 사업 기회를 장기 추적한다. 가격·투자성 동향은 정책 또는 인프라 영향이 명확한 경우에만 포함한다.”
As the trend of digital transformation accelerates in various fields of society at home and abroad
Preserved body
As the trend of digital transformation accelerates in various fields of society at home and abroad, two directions are changing in the financial sector that differ from the underlying technology. First of all, competition between traditional financial sectors, Fintech, and Big Tech is largely underway due to the phenomenon of “digital finance” based on technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), big data, Internet of Things (IoT), and cloud computing based on Hyper-connectivity. Next, the phenomenon of ‘Digital Asset’ (Digital Asset) aimed at decentralization is spreading based on blockchain and distributed ledger technology.
In particular, the digital asset ecosystem is actively aiming for decentralized trust in the blockchain-based protocol (Web 3.0), which replaces the current dominant Web 2.0 in the economy and finance led by platform operators and big tech based on distributed ledger technology (DLT) and consensus mechanisms. As classified by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Service (FINMA), it is common for these digital assets to be classified into three categories: Payment tokens, Utility tokens, and Asset tokens (Aset tokens) according to their economic functions.
Stablecoin is a type of payment-type token that is designed to be referred to or linked to the value of legal currency such as U.S. dollars and won or other assets such as real and financial assets to stabilize their value. As the expression “Stable” reveals, the main purpose of stablecoins is to avoid the rapid value volatility of general digital assets such as bitcoin, so that they not only perform basic monetary functions such as Unit of Account and Medium of Exchange in the digital asset ecosystem, but also use them as payment-type tokens that perform functions as Means of Payment and Store of Value in the real economy like money.
If these stablecoins are classified into functional and practical types, depending on the method of maintaining the above value stability, as shown in Tether (USDT) and Circle (USDC), real legal currencies such as US dollars and euros, or short-term government bonds are held as reserves, and “Fiat-collaborated” aimed at 1:1 value linkage, ② gold such as Tether Gold (XAUT), and Paxos Gold (PAXG) are used as reserve assets, Other digital assets can be classified as ‘Crypto-collaborated’ issued as reserve assets.
The EU’s 「MiCAR」, the U.S. 「Guiding and Estabiling National Innovation for U.S.」, and the establishment of a digital asset discipline system such as stablecoins through Japan’s revision of the 「Fund Settlement Act」 have been underway simultaneously in foreign countries. Looking briefly at the recent global legislative trends, it can be evaluated that stablecoins are generally included as a financial legal discipline system, focusing on legal currency and general product linkage. In the case of digital asset linkage, over-collateralization by Ethereum (ETH) is generally required due to the high value volatility of reserve assets, and the risk of automatic liquidation can be a problem in the event of a sudden change in the price of reserve assets.
However, since many stablecoins such as USDT and USDC are linked to the value of the US dollar, the reality is that these stablecoins actually contribute to the US dollar functioning as a major calculation/accounting unit as a key currency in the digital asset ecosystem. It also plays a role in temporarily safely depositing funds as a hedge against the rapid price volatility of other digital assets such as Bitcoin.
Furthermore, in the real economy, it is actively used as a means of cross-border payment and remittance at a faster and lower cost than SWIFT, an international remittance system operated by traditional finance such as banks, and in emerging countries where the value of their currencies is unstable, U.S. dollar-linked stablecoins such as USDT and USDC are sometimes used as hedge measures against inflation and exchange rate fluctuations.
For the above reasons, stablecoins are increasing in demand worldwide, but 99% of the issuance of stablecoins is known to be made up of US dollar-based stablecoins. Accordingly, in order to preserve the usability of the won in the stablecoin market and protect and strengthen Korea’s monetary sovereignty, the argument that the introduction of the won stablecoin is increasingly gaining strength. This is because if won-based stablecoins are not created in the digital asset market, Korean users will have no choice but to continue to rely on transactions through U.S. dollar-based stablecoins. In the end, it is judged that policy goals should be considered to resolve regulatory uncertainty and foster the won stablecoin-related industry by preparing a clear regulatory system for digital assets, including stablecoins.
Korea also needs to enact the Digital Asset Market Integration Act, which has a functional regulation that encompasses aspects of products, industries, and user protection in the digital asset market and includes special cases for stablecoins. Furthermore, it is expected that there will be a kind of currency competition between layered money such as electronic payment means, stablecoins, and bitcoin issued by the central bank’s digital currency (CBDC), Big tech, etc. In the future, it is necessary to seek policy and legislative measures such as revising the Electronic Financial Transactions Act, which promotes digital financial innovation and competition in the currency and payment settlement sector while promoting financial stability.