Daily Observation of Cryptocurrency Policy: South Korea Announces Three-Step Roadmap for Security Tokenization, Starting a New Era of Traditional Asset Digitization in 2027

Breaking the Ice on Regulations: The Scope of STO Expands from "Fragmented Investment" to Traditional Securities

The attitude of South Korean financial authorities towards the tokenization of securities is shifting from cautious pilot projects to systematic institutional reform.

The Financial Services Commission (FSC) and the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) of South Korea have officially announced a phased roadmap for capital market tokenization. According to the new plan, starting from February 2027, traditional mainstream financial securities such as stocks, bonds, and funds will be officially included in the compliant tokenization category. This means that the legal and market boundaries for Security Token Offerings (STOs) in South Korea will expand from previously niche "Fragmental Investment Products" like music copyrights and real estate to encompass the core capital market's foundational assets. FSC Vice Chairman Kwon Dae-young emphasized that the core goal of the authorities is to lay a solid foundation for a more diversified issuance and secondary circulation of traditional securities tokenization, ultimately transforming the underlying infrastructure of the capital market and achieving full-process digital interconnectivity.

Three-Phase Implementation Blueprint: From Institutional Revision, Comprehensive Public Offering to On-Chain Settlement of Stablecoins

To prevent systemic risks, South Korean regulators have established a clear "three-phase evolution path" for advancing tokenization:

Phase One (Starting February 2027): Focus on legal revisions and foundational implementation, mainly involving adaptive amendments to the Electronic Registration Act, clarifying regulations related to institutional investors' money market funds (MMFs) and bonds, standardizing the issuance of unlisted stocks through trust structures, and promoting compliant operations of publicly issued fragmented investment securities;

Phase Two (Comprehensive Expansion): After the mechanisms of Phase One mature, the scope of tokenization access will be further expanded to all publicly issued traditional securities;

Phase Three (Closed Loop of Payment Infrastructure): Build on-chain native payment and settlement infrastructure deeply linked to compliant stablecoins. Officials specifically pointed out that the specific pace of advancement in Phases Two and Three will strictly depend on the actual operational effectiveness of Phase One and the progress of subsequent stablecoin legislative reviews.

Investor Protection Bottom Line: Establishing Personal Purchase Limits and OTC Net Purchase Red Lines

While relaxing the on-chain access for institutional assets, South Korean regulators have built a strict financial firewall for retail investors.

To prevent retail investors from blindly leveraging and overheating speculation, the new roadmap establishes clear hard investment indicators:

Personal Purchase Limit: Ordinary individual investors participating in STO purchases are strictly limited to a single transaction cap of 30 million Korean Won (approximately 22,000 USD) or the lower of "5% of the total issuance of that asset";

Secondary Market Circulation Restrictions: In the over-the-counter (OTC) trading segment, the annual net purchase limit for individual investors is set at approximately 74,000 USD, locking in risk exposure and ensuring that the market explores liquidity release within a prudent and controllable framework.

Asian Capital Market Tokenization Enters the "Sovereign-Level Institutional Reconstruction" Era

Based on the policy dynamics of major Asian financial centers in early September, South Korea's roadmap signifies that the tokenization of traditional capital markets is moving beyond mere concept validation. By clarifying the timeline for 2027, stepwise amendments to the Electronic Registration Act and proactively incorporating on-chain settlement of stablecoins into the final plan, South Korea is attempting to seize the high ground in the global competition for Real World Assets (RWA) and STOs. As traditional stocks and bonds deeply integrate with on-chain smart contracts, it will not only significantly reduce the costs of issuance and circulation of securities but also provide an East Asian model that balances innovation and risk control for the digital transformation of global capital market infrastructure.

Data Source: https://bbx.com/ Cryptocurrency Concept Stock Information Database, compiled based on announcements from global listed companies and SEC/TSE disclosure documents from yesterday.