South Korea’s Financial Services Commission has detailed a three-phase roadmap for bringing tokenized securities into the country’s regulated capital markets. Legal recognition is scheduled to begin on February 4, 2027, when amendments affecting the electronic registration of securities take effect and create a formal framework for blockchain-based issuance.
According to the FSC’s official policy announcement, tokenized securities will be treated as digital representations of traditional securities rather than a separate asset class. That classification keeps tokenized products under existing securities and investor-protection rules, including the Electronic Securities Act and Capital Markets Act.
Phase One Targets Institutional and Private Assets
The first phase will focus on a limited range of instruments, including private money market funds, private bonds, unlisted shares and publicly offered fractional investment securities. The controlled rollout is intended to test tokenized issuance and distribution within an established regulatory framework before broader expansion.
The FSC will work with the Korea Securities Depository and securities firms to develop the registration and distribution infrastructure required for the February launch. Tokenized records will need to integrate with South Korea’s existing securities ownership and registry systems, ensuring that blockchain-based entries remain compatible with legally recognized records.
The framework also takes a technology-neutral approach. Rather than mandating a single blockchain, the FSC is allowing multi-chain implementations provided they satisfy regulatory and technical standards for securities infrastructure, leaving market participants flexibility over the underlying distributed ledger.
Stablecoin Settlement Comes in Final Phase
Phase Two would broaden tokenization to include all publicly offered securities, although the FSC has not set a date for that expansion. Progress beyond the initial stage will depend on operational stability and market readiness, making the roadmap deliberately incremental rather than automatic.
Phase Three goes further by targeting on-chain settlement linked to stablecoins. The objective is to place both securities and payment settlement on blockchain infrastructure, but implementation remains dependent on separate stablecoin legislation and the performance of earlier phases.
The regulator also plans tighter controls during the initial rollout. Retail investors will face an annual OTC purchase limit of 100 million won, while subscriptions will be capped at 30 million won or 5% of each issuance. Issuer account managers must also maintain at least 4 billion won in equity capital, adding a financial threshold for firms operating the new infrastructure.
The FSC plans to propose revisions to subordinate regulations by the end of September. South Korea is effectively moving tokenized securities from pilot programs into regulated production, while keeping broader issuance and stablecoin settlement conditional on demonstrated market and infrastructure readiness.
