Don’t immediately assume “the central bank is getting directly involved” every time you hear news about stablecoins.
According to Wu Shuo, citing Digital Asset, on October 12, Bank of Korea Governor Shin Hyun-song stated clearly at a parliamentary audit hearing that stablecoin-related businesses should be conducted by private companies. The Bank of Korea will not directly engage in stablecoin business, but will offer views on the order of the broader monetary ecosystem and participate in designing the institutional framework at the level of rules. He also explained that the Bank of Korea’s “Project Hangang” is different from private stablecoins: its approach is to tokenize the existing two-tier monetary system through institutional CBDCs and bank deposit tokens. Since 2023, the Bank of Korea has stopped researching retail CBDCs for the general public. These remarks are a broadly positive directional signal for KRW stablecoins and the RWA sector. However, they remain only the governor’s comments at a parliamentary audit hearing; formal stablecoin legislation and licensing standards are still some way off. They will not directly affect any token prices in the short term, and are better viewed as an indication that policy uncertainty is easing than as a basis for trading.
Two things to note: First, these remarks draw a clearer line between “who issues the coins and who sets the rules”: private institutions conduct the business, while the central bank participates in designing the institutional framework. Second, “Project Hangang” has been explicitly distinguished from private stablecoins, and research into retail CBDCs was discontinued in 2023. Are you more interested in the compliance pathway for private stablecoins in South Korea, or in the progress of tokenization under “Project Hangang”?
Image 1: Bank of Korea governor: Stablecoins should be handled by private institutions; the central bank will only regulate · Partial screenshot of source page
Image source: https://www.wublock123.com/news/bank-of-korea-governor-central-bank-not-directly-involved-in-stablecoins-private-sector-69891
According to Wu Shuo, citing Digital Asset, on October 12, Bank of Korea Governor Shin Hyun-song stated clearly at a parliamentary audit hearing that stablecoin-related businesses should be conducted by private companies. The Bank of Korea will not directly engage in stablecoin business, but will offer views on the order of the broader monetary ecosystem and participate in designing the institutional framework at the level of rules. He also explained that the Bank of Korea’s “Project Hangang” is different from private stablecoins: its approach is to tokenize the existing two-tier monetary system through institutional CBDCs and bank deposit tokens. Since 2023, the Bank of Korea has stopped researching retail CBDCs for the general public. These remarks are a broadly positive directional signal for KRW stablecoins and the RWA sector. However, they remain only the governor’s comments at a parliamentary audit hearing; formal stablecoin legislation and licensing standards are still some way off. They will not directly affect any token prices in the short term, and are better viewed as an indication that policy uncertainty is easing than as a basis for trading.
Two things to note: First, these remarks draw a clearer line between “who issues the coins and who sets the rules”: private institutions conduct the business, while the central bank participates in designing the institutional framework. Second, “Project Hangang” has been explicitly distinguished from private stablecoins, and research into retail CBDCs was discontinued in 2023. Are you more interested in the compliance pathway for private stablecoins in South Korea, or in the progress of tokenization under “Project Hangang”?
Image 1: Bank of Korea governor: Stablecoins should be handled by private institutions; the central bank will only regulate · Partial screenshot of source page
Image source: https://www.wublock123.com/news/bank-of-korea-governor-central-bank-not-directly-involved-in-stablecoins-private-sector-69891