Research & speeches

Bank of Korea: tokenized assets should settle first in central bank money

14 May 2026APACSource: Bank of Korea

BOK Issue Note 2026-11 (14 May 2026) on asset tokenization says Korea's market remains at an early stage, but amendments to the Electronic Securities Act and the Capital Markets Act in February 2026 established an institutional framework for issuing and distributing tokenized securities.
It puts the global tokenization market at USD 50.37 billion as of end-March 2026 and recommends that tokenized assets settle primarily in central bank money (including CBDC) and commercial bank deposits (including tokenized deposits), with stablecoins in a supplementary role, alongside on-chain monitoring and stress tests.

Why it matters

The Bank of Korea's staff view that tokenized-asset settlement should run first on central bank money and bank deposits, including tokenized deposits, positions Korean banks rather than stablecoin issuers as the default cash leg for the tokenized-securities market that opens under the February 2026 amendments.

Read the original: Bank of Korea ↗

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More detail

Who is affected

Issuers and investors in tokenized securities in Korea, commercial banks, the Bank of Korea and financial supervisory authorities.

Key facts

Event: Research note
Jurisdiction: APAC
Source: Bank of Korea
Source tier: Tier 1 · Regulator / central bank
Product: Tokenized deposits, Tokenized assets

In the database

Institutions

Bank of Korea

How we verified this

The source says

“Lastly, for settlement of tokenized assets, priority should be given to central bank money (including central bank digital currency) and commercial bank deposits (including tokenized deposits), with stablecoins being utilized in a supplementary capacity, in order to maintain the singleness of money.”

“However, with the amendments to the Electronic Securities Act (Act on Electronic Registration of Stocks, Bonds, etc.) and the Capital Markets Act (Financial Investment Services and Capital Markets Act) in February 2026, an institutional framework for the issuance and distribution of tokenized securities has been established.”

Verbatim from Bank of Korea, matched word for word against the live page on 31 October 2026.

Sources

PrimaryBank of Korea ↗2026-05-14T1Regulator

Evidence

Confidence: High Primary source (regulator / official record); quote string-matched against the live page.
Quote verified: 2026-10-31 20:00 UTC
Archived snapshot: SHA-256 cc9c836c0b41479f… · fetched 2026-10-30
Source type: Primary Bank of Korea ↗

Change log (1)

2026-10-30 Published

Full evidence record · How we label confidence

AI-assisted: the summary and analysis were drafted with AI from the primary source and checked by the editors. AI-drafted from the primary source; quote string-matched against the live source page.

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