Choi Says Institutional Digital Assets Will Reshape Korean Finance

By Daniel Okafor

On Nov. 12, Rep. Choi Eun-seok of South Korea’s People Power Party called for a coordinated policy shift as financial institutions enter digital assets, spanning capital markets, asset tokenization, payments and custody.

Choi made the case at a seminar titled “Digital Assets: The Institutional Era Arrives,” held at the National Assembly Members’ Office Building in Seoul’s Yeouido district. He said institutional participation requires rules that reflect changes to the financial industry’s structure and competitive landscape, rather than a policy process confined to individual products or services.

What does institutional entry change?

Choi said the growing presence of institutions in the digital-asset market is “not simply a matter of a change in the investor base.” He instead linked it to a broader reshaping of financial-industry structure and competitive landscape as new technology and financial methods combine with existing capital markets.

His argument treats digital assets as more than a new investment vehicle. In his assessment, their convergence with traditional finance can change how institutions deploy capital and how South Korea’s financial industry competes. Choi said global financial institutions are expanding into asset tokenization, payments and custody, requiring the domestic financial industry and capital markets to respond.

He said institutional entry means more than an increase in market participants. It creates an opportunity to combine new technology and financial methods with existing capital markets, making the transition relevant to the wider financial industry rather than only digital-asset products.

That makes institutional participation a potential catalyst for reviewing structural changes across South Korea’s financial industry and capital markets. Choi said policymakers should assess those changes from the perspective of the capital market’s overall development, not only decide whether to permit individual products or services.

For institutions, the distinction is practical. A product-by-product approach can address whether one service launches, but it does not by itself answer the corporate-market access, capital-flow and trust questions institutions must consider for sustained participation. Choi did not announce a specific rule; he argued for a wider policy frame.

“What matters is not only introducing systems in step with the pace of change, but also establishing a consistent policy direction that can respond to a new financial order,” Choi said.

He said the policy response should prepare the industry for its future over the long term while accounting for the market’s current stage of development and global trends. The emphasis on consistency also points toward durable conditions for institutions, rather than a sequence of isolated permissions.

What did the seminar address?

The seminar examined the conditions for opening the corporate market and drawing institutional capital into digital assets. It also focused on the trust infrastructure needed to support institutional participation and the policy tasks facing South Korean financial institutions as global market trends change.

Choi said South Korea must convert expert insight and industry experience into concrete policy priorities. That call connects the proposed institutional shift to legislative and policy work: tokenization, payments and custody require attention within a broader capital-market framework, while corporate access and trust infrastructure are central to institutional participation.

He said proposals presented at the event would be faithfully reflected in legislative and policy discussions. That language stops short of a timetable or promised rule, so the proposals’ practical effect depends on how policymakers translate the forum’s themes into specific legislative or policy steps.

The immediate business issue identified by the seminar is whether institutions can enter a corporate market with suitable trust arrangements in place. Choi described the event as a step toward sound growth in South Korea’s digital-asset market and a broader advance in the financial industry.

What happens next?

The next test is whether the seminar’s ideas produce concrete measures for corporate-market access, institutional-capital inflows and trust infrastructure. Choi’s position puts those structural questions ahead of any single product approval and links digital-asset policy to the wider evolution of South Korean capital markets.