South Korea to pilot tokenized government bonds on CBDC-linked blockchain

The South Korean government will launch a pilot program to tokenize government bonds on a blockchain, linked to the Bank of Korea's wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC), according to Yonhap Infomax. The plan was unveiled at a cabinet meeting on July 14 as part of the government's 'Economic Growth Strategy for the Second Half of 2026.' The strategy also includes preparing measures to strengthen industrial competitiveness through large-scale blockchain pilot projects and securing leading technologies in the latter half of this year. Furthermore, the government will pursue the enactment of a 'Digital Asset Basic Act' to segment the digital asset industry, regulate business activities, and create a legal framework for stablecoins. It also plans to develop a framework for cross-border stablecoin transactions in line with the second phase of digital asset legislation and will support amendments to the Capital Markets Act to introduce spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs).