South Korea eyes September launch for second phase of CBDC pilot: Report
South Korea’s Bank of Korea may begin the second phase of Project Hangang, its wholesale CBDC pilot, as early as September. The next stage will expand participation from seven to nine banks, adding Kyongnam Bank and iM Bank, while testing new payment functions and government subsidy payouts through tokenized bank deposits. Project Hangang uses a blockchain-based wholesale CBDC as the settlement asset for commercial-bank deposit tokens used by consumers for payments. The first phase, run from April to June 2025, focused on payment infrastructure and recorded about 81,000 participants and 114,880 deposit-token transactions. The second phase will test commercialization features such as peer-to-peer transfers, biometric authentication, automated transfers, and merchant onboarding through partner banks.
