South Korea moves to include crypto in state asset management law

South Korea has unveiled plans for a new law that will bring cryptocurrencies and other digital assets into the country’s state asset management framework, expanding rules that have remained largely unchanged for more than seven decades.

South Korea’s Ministry of Economy and Finance said during a July 15 policy briefing at the President’s Blue House that it will introduce the National Asset Basic Act, replacing an approach built around the existing State Property Act enacted in 1950.

The ministry said the current law was designed for an economy where government assets were largely limited to real estate. The proposed framework will instead cover newer categories, including intellectual property and virtual assets, while introducing specialized management and development standards for different types of state-owned assets.

Under the proposal, authorities plan to move away from treating public assets mainly as property to preserve, sell, or develop. Instead, the ministry said the new framework will focus on creating more value from government-owned assets through modern management practices.

Crypto legislation remains part of wider blockchain strategy

The latest proposal follows another digital asset policy update released earlier this week. After Monday’s State Council meeting, the Ministry of Economy and Finance confirmed that blockchain development will remain part of South Korea’s economic growth strategy for the second half of 2026, even as artificial intelligence receives a larger share of government investment.

As part of that roadmap, the ministry said it will continue work on the Digital Asset Basic Act, legislation intended to establish rules for the country’s digital asset industry, including business conduct standards and a legal framework for Korean won-pegged stablecoins. Authorities also said they plan to create legal foundations for cross-border stablecoin transactions and support amendments that would allow spot cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds.

Plans for blockchain infrastructure also continue to expand. The ministry previously announced that a pilot program linking tokenized government bonds with an institutional central bank digital currency project will begin in 2027, while the Bank of Korea will study how its CBDC can interact with other blockchain networks.

At the provincial level, Gyeonggi Province is preparing to launch an eight-month blockchain stablecoin pilot in August. 

According to blockchain media outlet NexBlock, blockchain security company ZKrypto will lead the trial, which will test stablecoin issuance, circulation, settlement, fraud prevention, privacy protections, and public benefit payments through February 2027. The system will use zero-knowledge proofs to prevent double-spending and proof-of-reserves technology to verify backing assets throughout the pilot.