Ahn Do-geol Urges South Korea to Speed Digital-Asset Legislation

Ahn Do-geol, a lawmaker from South Korea's Democratic Party, called for a swift push to institutionalize digital assets, saying the National Assembly should accelerate work on the Digital Asset Basic Act now pending in parliament.

Speaking at a seminar on June 22 at the National Assembly Members' Office Building in Seoul's Yeouido district, Ahn said institutionalizing digital assets is no longer optional. Major economies and financial institutions are already competing to build new financial infrastructure, he said, and South Korea must quickly remove regulatory uncertainty to avoid falling behind.

Ahn said digital assets are developing beyond mere investment instruments into next-generation financial infrastructure. He said they are dramatically improving the efficiency of payments and remittances. He also said the market for real-world assets, or RWAs, is growing rapidly as assets such as government bonds, money market funds, deposits and real estate are issued and traded in the form of digital tokens.

Ahn also cited policy moves in major economies. The US has enacted a stablecoin bill, the GENIUS Act, and is seeking to secure leadership in the digital financial order, he said. It is also pursuing the CLARITY Act, a virtual-asset market structure bill, to refine the legal foundation for digital assets. Japan, meanwhile, has moved beyond its earlier conservative approach and is responding to the new financial order by incorporating stablecoins into its domestic payments infrastructure.

The Democratic Party previously proposed the Digital Asset Basic Act last year, but the bill has repeatedly stalled in the National Assembly. Industry participants say fostering the digital-asset industry is effectively impossible without a basic law. Ahn said the purpose of institutionalization is clear: whether digital assets will be left unattended or developed into trustworthy financial infrastructure within the regulated financial system.

Ahn said he intends to resume full-scale discussions on the basic law in the second half of the year. The legislation must now move beyond debate and toward enactment, he said, adding that he would step up efforts in the National Assembly later this year. He also said he would actively pursue follow-up legal reforms, including revisions to the Electronic Financial Transactions Act, and work to build a legislative foundation so digital assets can develop into financial infrastructure used in the real economy.