South Korea to bring digital assets under new state asset management system
South Korea plans to replace the outdated 1950 State Property Act with a new National Asset Basic Act to modernize state asset management. The Ministry of Economy and Finance wants to broaden the definition of national assets to include digital assets and intellectual property, shifting from a real-estate-heavy framework toward value creation. The government also plans a 2027 pilot to tokenize government bonds on blockchain, aimed at lowering transaction costs, and may explore tokenizing state-owned real estate to allow retail participation and share returns with the public. This fits into a wider push toward a blockchain-based economy, including work to connect tokenized government bonds with the Bank of Korea’s CBDC infrastructure and make that infrastructure interoperable with other blockchains. South Korea is also preparing broader tokenized securities rules to take effect in 2027.
