South Korea lifts the ban on KRW stablecoins, with banks and tech giants fiercely competing for issuance rights, and the outlook looks promising.
KRW stablecoin is accelerating.
South Korea is expected to pass the Digital Asset Basic Act (Phase 2) in Q1 2026, effectively ending the KRW stablecoin issuance ban that has been in place since 2017.
According to the law, the KRW stablecoin will still be a familiar 1:1 fully backed token.
However, who will issue this stablecoin is still contested, with three main forces vying for the rights:
1. Banking consortium, led by Hana Bank (the third largest bank in South Korea), bringing together a large group of traditional banks.
2. Tech conglomerate, Kakao (South Korea's equivalent of WeChat) leading, whose official public chain Kaia has already applied for the related stablecoin trademark, and the Consensus conference also released the stablecoin architecture document.
3. Exchange + tech conglomerate, Naver (South Korea's equivalent of Baidu) + Upbit; recently Naver acquired Upbit, and has long been positioning for a stablecoin.
Nevertheless, the Bank of Korea (BOK) is considering that the KRW stablecoin issuer must be operated by a consortium led by a bank, with the bank holding at least 50%+1 of the shares. Tech groups have expressed some opposition. So the issue is still being tugged back and forth.