South Korea’s new economic roadmap is a massive bet on blockchain technology

South Korea plans to update its 76-year-old national asset management system to formally include virtual currencies and intellectual property in the country’s definition of national assets, according to the Ministry of Economy and Finance’s economic policy roadmap released Wednesday.

The proposal contemplates revising the National Property Act, which dates back to 1950, and includes plans to create a broader legal framework for managing state-owned assets. The ministry reiterated plans to start a pilot program for tokenized government bonds in 2027, saying blockchain technology has the potential to reduce transaction costs and speed up transfers.

Officials are also studying the tokenization of state-owned real estate to allow retail investors to participate and share in investment returns, according to the plan.

The announcement builds on South Korea’s broader push to bring blockchain into public finance. Earlier this year, the Finance Ministry said it would begin testing tokenized deposits for government spending in the fourth quarter. The Bank of Korea has already started trials of its central bank digital currency (CBDC) with commercial banks.

The government said it plans to connect tokenized government bonds to the Bank of Korea’s CBDC infrastructure during the 2027 pilot and will study interoperability between the central bank’s blockchain network and other distributed ledger platforms.

Amendments to the Capital Markets Act and the Electronic Act are scheduled to take effect on Feb. 4, 2027, giving blockchain-ledger systems legal recognition as security registries.

CEX trading volumes rose for the first time in five months in June, with spot climbing 15.3% to $1.11T and RWA perpetual volumes surging to a record $311B.

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