Bank of Korea stands firm on bank-led stablecoin push as deposit token pilots advance

The Bank of Korea (BOK) has doubled down on its stance that won-denominated stablecoins should first be issued through bank-led consortiums.

According to local reports from Digital Asset and EDaily, the central bank made the comments in materials submitted on Thursday to the National Assembly's finance committee. Local outlets reported that the BOK called for safeguards, including priority issuance by bank-led consortiums and a statutory policy body involving relevant agencies.

The latest comments reinforce the BOK's months-long push to keep won stablecoin issuance under bank-led structures. The central bank's stance has divided policymakers and industry groups and contributed to delays in South Korea's digital asset bill.

The BOK also said it plans to continue developing deposit-token use cases in the second half of the year, including support for government subsidy payments, vouchers, electric vehicle charging infrastructure and further real-world transactions for the general public. Deposit tokens are digital tokens that represent commercial bank deposits.

In April, BOK Governor Hyun-Song Shin expressed support for deposit tokens and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) in his first public address, while South Korea’s Ministry of Economy and Finance announced a pilot to use tokenized deposits for government operational spending.

BOK’s stablecoin stance keeps bill debate alive

The BOK’s latest comments add to a policy standoff that has slowed progress on South Korea's Digital Asset Basic Act. The bill had repeatedly stalled over disagreements on who should be allowed to issue stablecoins, with the BOK pushing for banks to retain majority ownership of stablecoin issuers.

The debate has continued as lawmakers consider how stablecoins, tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) and other digital assets should fit into South Korea’s rulebooks. In April, the ruling Democratic Party proposed to put stablecoins and RWAs under existing financial laws. Despite this, key issues such as whether stablecoin issuers should be bank-led remained unresolved.

The bill's timeline, which the government told President Lee Jae-myung in January it aimed to meet by the first quarter of 2026, has since slipped amid the US-Israeli war with Iran that began in late February, local elections, and delays in reorganizing the Assembly's committee structure.