FSC Chairman Lee Eok-won Puts Won Stablecoin Law in Final Coordination

Chairman Says Content Ready, Coordination Underway

Financial Services Commission Chairman Lee Eok-won told the National Assembly's Political Affairs Committee audit on Thursday, October 8, that the framework for the Digital Asset Basic Act and a won-denominated stablecoin is already drafted and now sits in final coordination. Answering Democratic Party lawmaker Lee Kang-il at the annual government inspection, the chairman said the substance is prepared and his office is working through the last-stage consultations needed to carry the package forward. "We will conclude the coordination quickly and settle how to lead the industry and the market as a whole," he said in the testimony, adding that the approach would keep Korea from lagging the global flow while staying safe and solid.

The exchange followed pointed criticism from Lee Kang-il, who argued that Korea has yet to produce even a basic design while global standard-setting accelerates. The lawmaker cited the United States' GENIUS Act, the CLARITY Act and the European Union's Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regime as proof that competitors are locking in digital asset standards ahead of Seoul. The legislative stages differ sharply: MiCA is a finalized rule that already binds crypto asset service providers across the EU, the GENIUS Act is enacted American law, and the Korean bill remains pending text with no submission date attached.

63 Trillion Won Outflow Claim Frames the Urgency

The lawmaker's submitted figures set the tone. Domestic dollar stablecoin transaction volume topped 6 trillion won in June alone, and cumulative trading this year had reached 80 trillion won through July, according to the data he presented at the audit. Among yen stablecoins listed domestically, 54 percent of global trading occurred in the Korean market, he said. Dollar and yen tokens circulate freely while the won stablecoin lacks even a designated issuer, and a Cayman Islands-registered corporation is weighing a won stablecoin for payments and game settlement with domestic companies, Lee told the committee.

He put a cost on the delay: 63 trillion won had left the country for overseas markets this year through last month, by his own tally. Global tokenization, he noted, had grown to roughly 4 trillion won in tokenized stocks, 22 trillion won in tokenized government bonds and money market funds, and 55 trillion won in on-chain real-world assets. Competition concerns entered the record too: he argued that a Naver Financial and Dunamu combination would hand the operator of Upbit, Korea's largest crypto exchange, overwhelming market power, and raised similar worries over Toss's expansion into payments and lending. His written questions covered seven tasks, including stablecoin types and issuance standards, the operation of won exchange licenses, the split between won and coin market venues, how venue rules would treat order types, and the timing for permitting tokenized stocks, crypto options and other digital asset derivatives, with a domestic crypto wallet layer expected to carry stablecoin payments.

COINOTAG's reading: the hearing confirms the bill text exists but that the hardest decisions are still open. The chairman committed to speed yet named no submission date, no issuer model for a won stablecoin and no verdict on whether the won and coin market licensing split survives, saying those points would follow market conditions. The lawmaker's own numbers, 80 trillion won in dollar stablecoin volume and 63 trillion won in outflows, now give Seoul a quantified case to legislate before issuers set up abroad, and the Naver Financial and Dunamu market-power review is the variable most likely to shape any licensing redesign.