South Korea Unveils Three-Phase Roadmap for Tokenized Securities and Stablecoin Settlement

Highlights:

• South Korea will bring tokenized products such as bonds and funds into its Securities market from February next year.
• Existing securities firms can handle tokenized products without applying for a separate license.
• Stablecoins could eventually support direct settlement of tokenized securities on blockchain networks.

South Korea’s FSC will open its tokenized securities market to more traditional financial products from February 4, 2027. The regulator announced its three-stage roadmap to guide the expansion of blockchain-based securities. The FSC and FSS presented the plan during the third public-private consultative meeting on tokenized securities.

BREAKING: 🇰🇷 South Korea is preparing to tokenize stocks, bonds and funds on the blockchain.

The Financial Services Commission unveiled a three-phase roadmap for tokenized securities, with the first phase set for February 2027. pic.twitter.com/spBKx6doRv

— CryptoMoney (@cryptomoney_x) September 4, 2026

The first stage will start when amendments to Korea’s securities laws take effect on February 4. Institutional investors can then access private money market funds and privately placed bonds through tokenized infrastructure. Firms can also place electronic unlisted shares into trusts and issue tokenized beneficiary certificates against those assets. Publicly offered fractional investment securities will also enter the first phase.

Lawmakers established the legal foundation for the market through two amendments in January 2026. The National Assembly amended the Electronic Securities Act and Capital Markets Act to recognize the new securities structure. The September 4 roadmap now identifies eligible products, licensing requirements, and three stages for implementing those legal changes. The FSC limited the February rollout to selected products to reduce infrastructure costs and operational risks during the initial launch.

South Korea Opens Tokenized Markets to Securities Firms

Existing firms can enter South Korea markets for tokenized securities without obtaining a separate license from financial regulators. Licensed securities companies can issue or trade these products when those activities fall within their existing approvals.

The FSC will also let issuers pool multiple underlying assets into one fractional investment security under specific conditions. Issuers can only pool assets of the same type when each underlying asset provides investors with identical rights. The FSC will require issuers to provide a clear investment purpose for combining several assets into one security.

The regulator will prohibit issuers from adding distressed assets to pooled fractional investment products. However, issuers can include future receivables when underlying contracts establish clear rights and suitable investor safeguards. For example, an issuer could combine copyrights from one artist’s songs or album into a single fractional investment security.

The FSC proposed a 30 million won subscription cap or 5% of an issue, whichever amount provides the lower limit. Regulators will also use allocation rules to prevent individual investors from receiving excessive shares of fractional securities offerings.

Financial regulators also plan a debt-securities trading license that will allow platforms to serve retail investors. The current framework limits this type of debt trading to professional investors. Korea’s Finance Ministry classifies tokenized products as securities and places their issuance and trading under capital markets law. The classification keeps these securities outside the 22% crypto tax scheduled to start in January 2027.

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Annual gains above… pic.twitter.com/26O4ZrQzbZ

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Stablecoins Could Support Future Settlement

During phase two, the FSC plans to extend blockchain issuance from initial products to publicly offered securities. The regulator has not fixed a date because market stability, demand and private-sector technology will determine the timing.

In phase three, regulators want stablecoins to provide the payment side of securities transactions completed directly on distributed ledgers. The planned delivery-versus-payment model would transfer a security and its stablecoin payment simultaneously through the same blockchain infrastructure.

However, lawmakers have not completed the legal framework covering won-backed stablecoins. They are still developing the Digital Asset Basic Act, which would provide part of the regulatory framework. The FSC and Bank of Korea also differ over how South Korea should govern stablecoin issuance and oversight.