Korean Lawmaker Warns Bank-Only Won Stablecoins Would Kill Demand

A senior South Korean lawmaker has said that restricting won stablecoin issuance to banks would produce a token nobody uses. Rep. Min Byung-duk of the Democratic Party of Korea made the argument on Nov. 10 at D-CON 2026, a special dialogue held at the Fairmont Ambassador Seoul in Yeouido.

"The debate should focus on where stablecoins will be used and how they will circulate, but in South Korea it is still fixated on who gets to issue them," Min said.

His criticism cuts at a live policy fight. Korean regulators have leaned toward treating bank-issued tokens as the safer option. Min said that logic risks building a stablecoin that fails on arrival, because safety of issuer type matters less than whether the token actually circulates.

Who should be allowed to issue won stablecoins?

Min's answer: anyone who meets the safeguards. He laid out a standards-based framework rather than an industry-based one.

• 100% reserve assets backing every token
• Guaranteed redemption rights for holders
• A named supervisor overseeing the issuer
• Full anti-money laundering and know-your-customer compliance

"Any entity that meets those standards should be allowed to participate so competition can emerge," Min said. In his view, regulators should set the rules and police compliance, not pick winners in advance by capping who can enter the market.

He was careful not to attack the banks themselves. Banks bring infrastructure, he conceded. Fintech firms bring convenience. Crypto companies bring technology and networks. The right model, he argued, is consortia that combine those strengths and issue different stablecoins that compete on services.

"If they form consortia based on those strengths and create different stablecoins, they can compete on services," Min said. The winners of that domestic contest, he added, should then expand globally.

What does this change for Korea's payment system?

Min framed stablecoins as a chance to break a structural dependency. Korean merchants and consumers currently pay fees to foreign card networks such as Visa and Mastercard. A won stablecoin rail could invert that flow.

"The question is whether we will keep paying fees to payment networks built abroad, or live by collecting fees through a payment network built by South Korea," Min said. "Alongside semiconductors and shipbuilding, this could become a new growth engine."

He also named distribution channels: Samsung Electronics smartphones, Hyundai Motor and Kia, and Korean cultural content. Those companies already hold overseas customer bases and distribution networks. Issuers could tap them to target global markets from day one.

"Blockchain is a technology for the world, so we should not narrow the market to South Korea," Min said.

His timing argument rests on artificial intelligence. Min said AI agents will handle more transactions in the coming years, and they will not reach for a credit card.

"AI agents are not going to make payments with cards," he said. "Stablecoins can become the payments infrastructure of the digital era."

The Jan. 18, 2027 deadline

Min urged the National Assembly to pass the Digital Asset Basic Act in the current regular session, or at the latest before Jan. 18, 2027. That date matters because the United States is moving to institutionalize stablecoins, and Korean companies need legal footing to compete, he said.

"Dollar stablecoins are advancing, and we cannot keep telling domestic operators to wait," Min said. He also noted that criticism of the government for pursuing crypto taxation before passing a basic legal framework had underscored the legislation's urgency.

On drafting, Min counseled restraint. Writing every future development into law is unrealistic in a field changing this fast, he said. The basic law should set principles and guardrails, and leave room for creative experimentation inside them.

The ball now sits with the National Assembly. If the session closes without action, the Jan. 18, 2027 ceiling becomes the last window before Korea's stablecoin question drifts further behind the dollar market it is trying to answer.