Bank of Korea plans stablecoin forex amendment by year-end

Bank of Korea plans to draft a foreign exchange law amendment before year-end that would regulate stablecoins as a means of payment, the central bank told lawmakers. It disclosed the plan in an Oct. 22 written submission to the National Assembly's annual audit, first reported by Korean outlet Digital Asset and carried by Bitcoin Magazine. The submission is a plan to write a bill, not a bill: there is no draft text, no named token and no passage date.

The submission says the Bank is consulting with the government on regulating cross-border virtual asset transactions. It also plans a monitoring system on the foreign exchange network's reporting rails. It cited settlement outside the banking system, mixers and regulatory gaps around personal wallets as factors that ease illegal transactions. The operative phrase is "means of payment," a defined term in Korean foreign exchange law for an instrument whose cross-border movement must be reported. Bitcoin Magazine reads that as meaning dollar stablecoins would face the reporting controls attached to a cross-border wire, not legal-tender status.

If that reading survives into draft text, Korea-based clients and Asia-distributed tokenized funds moving dollar tokens across the border for subscriptions and redemptions would face the same reporting controls as a cross-border wire. Compliance teams have nothing concrete to test yet: no instrument list, thresholds or effective date appear in the submission.

The forex work runs parallel to the Digital Asset Basic Act, the licensing and stablecoin-issuance framework flagged alongside spot bitcoin ETF approval in the government's 2026 growth strategy. Financial Services Commission chairman Lee Eog-weon told lawmakers Thursday that consultations on the Basic Act are in their final stage and the bill will follow as soon as possible, Bloomingbit reported. The Bank said it will work with ministries to limit transactions that exploit the gap until that law exists.

Korea's crypto income tax is due Jan. 1, 2027 after three postponements, according to The Block. Lawmakers have questioned taxing a market before the law defining it passes. Lee said Thursday the tax should "take various circumstances into full consideration," per Yonhap, and Democratic Party leader Kim Min-seok called for a "thorough final review." Two petitions, one to repeal the tax and one to defer it two years, each cleared the 50,000 signatures that force a legislative review.

The open questions are whether the reporting net reaches personal wallets as well as issuers and intermediaries, and whether the Basic Act clears the National Assembly before the Jan. 1, 2027 tax date. The Bank's submission sets the drafting deadline before year-end.