South Korea's Democratic Party and Financial Services Commission held their first closed-door briefing in four months on July 20, restarting work on the Digital Asset Basic Act with a target to reintroduce the bill to a subcommittee in September, according to a briefing confirmed by both parties.
The pause began in March after lawmakers and regulators deadlocked over two contentious provisions: the structure of won-backed stablecoin consortiums and ownership caps on cryptocurrency exchanges. The National Assembly's own research service flagged the ownership restrictions as potentially violating the constitution, creating a legal hurdle that neither side has resolved. The freeze halted what had been one of Seoul's most closely watched legislative efforts to establish a regulatory framework for digital assets.
Under the accelerated timeline, the parties plan twice-monthly review meetings to prepare the bill for September reintroduction. The government has stated a target of year-end passage, though the ownership cap dispute and stablecoin governance questions remain unresolved. Previous timelines have slipped; lawmakers announced a similar "year-end" target in 2024 before the bill stalled.
The stablecoin issue carries immediate stakes for Korean financial institutions. Multiple banks have formed consortiums to develop a won-pegged stablecoin, a project that requires legislative clarity on which entities can participate and under what reserve requirements. The competing consortiums have lobbied separately, and regulatory guidance on their structure remains absent.
The ownership cap, originally proposed to prevent concentration of exchange control, emerged as a constitutional flashpoint after the research service warned it could restrict property rights unlawfully. Lawmakers have not publicly detailed how they plan to square this constraint with the cap's stated purpose.
South Korea has attempted digital asset legislation twice before. A bill died in 2022 before floor debate. A second effort, launched in 2023, ran aground amid disputes over custody standards and the role of traditional finance. This iteration includes both, plus the new stablecoin dimension.
Seoul is on its third run at the law since 2022, and the two disputes that froze it in March are still open. A faster review calendar does not settle an ownership cap the Assembly's own research service flagged as unconstitutional; until someone publishes a fix for that, September is a date, not a deal.
The document to watch is an ownership-cap proposal from the Democratic Party or the FSC that answers the constitutional finding. That is what would make September real.
