Across Asia, regulators are moving from broad crypto debates to very specific rules for who can issue stablecoins and how they must be backed.
Two developments stand out this week:
- South Korea is advancing the second phase of its Digital Asset Basic Act, built around a “Korean-style stablecoin” framework where issuance is limited to bank-led consortia.
- Taiwan has confirmed a target of H2 2026 for its first fully regulated, Taiwan-dollar-pegged stablecoin, under a MiCA-inspired framework initially centred on banks.
Both approaches point in the same direction: stablecoins are being treated less like experimental tokens and more like extensions of the banking and payments system.
South Korea: A Korean-Style Stablecoin With 51% Bank Control
South Korea’s government and National Assembly are now in final talks on the second-phase Digital Asset Basic Act, which will set the country’s main rules for exchanges, token issuance and won-based stablecoins.
At the core of the stablecoin chapter is a political compromise:
- Only consortia where banks hold at least 51 percent of the equity will be allowed to issue regulated won stablecoins.
- Technology and fintech firms can participate as minority partners, contributing infrastructure and innovation, but banks must remain in control.
- Lawmakers have set a tight timetable: the government must submit its bill language by early December, with the goal of passing the Act around January 2026.
The idea is to build what domestic media describe as a “Korean-style stablecoin”:
- Backed and supervised like a banking product
- Interoperable with existing payment and settlement systems
- Still open enough to involve blockchain and fintech companies at the technical layer
Behind the scenes, this structure reflects a tug of war:
- The Bank of Korea has pushed for a bank-dominated model to protect monetary sovereignty and payment-system stability.
- Parts of the ruling party and industry have argued for more open issuance, to avoid shutting out domestic fintech and crypto firms.
The 51 percent rule is the compromise: it anchors control with banks while leaving some room for private-sector experimentation.
Taiwan: Toward A Regulated TWD Stablecoin By 2026
Taiwan’s Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) has now confirmed that the island’s first regulated stablecoin is targeted for launch in the second half of 2026, subject to passage of the Virtual Asset Service Act and related rules.
Key details from the current blueprint:
- The inaugural stablecoin will be pegged to fiat (with strong hints it will be the New Taiwan Dollar rather than USD).
- Only banks and other licensed financial institutions will be permitted to issue in the initial phase, to keep oversight tight while the regime beds in.
- The framework is explicitly inspired by the EU’s MiCA regulation, with familiar pillars:
- 100 percent backing by high-quality liquid assets
- Reserve assets held with domestic financial institutions
- Segregation between the issuer and the reserve custodian
- Real-time or high-frequency reserve attestations and public reporting
Further commentary from the FSC and Taiwan’s central bank suggests that non-bank issuers may be allowed later, once the first wave of bank-led products has proven the model. For now, though, regulators want the pilot phase firmly inside the traditional financial sector.
Why Asia Is Putting Banks At The Centre
Both the Korean and Taiwanese models share a fundamental design choice: banks sit in the driving seat.
Several reasons explain this convergence:
- Monetary sovereignty: Central banks worry that large, privately issued stablecoins could compete with bank deposits or interfere with monetary policy. Requiring a bank majority stake and domestic reserves lets them keep a tighter grip on money-like instruments.
- Crisis management: In a stress event, regulators know how to work with banks: capital requirements, lender-of-last-resort facilities and resolution regimes already exist. Extending those tools to bank-led stablecoins is simpler than building new ones for pure crypto firms.
- AML / KYC enforcement: Banks already operate under strict anti-money laundering standards. Making them the controlling shareholders in stablecoin issuers raises the baseline for compliance and reporting.
- Public trust and political optics: Positioning national or domestic stablecoins as bank products makes them easier to explain to the public and to lawmakers who are wary of “crypto” but comfortable with regulated banking.
In short, Asian regulators are trying to harness stablecoin technology without giving up the institutional levers they use to manage traditional money.
What This Means For Offshore Stablecoins And Crypto Firms
The emerging Asian model has several implications for existing crypto players.
Pressure On Offshore Dollar Stablecoins
Domestic, bank-led stablecoins in South Korea and Taiwan will not immediately displace global dollar tokens like USDT or USDC, but they change the calculus for:
- Local payment use cases, where regulators may favour or even require use of home-currency stablecoins issued under national rules.
- Exchanges and fintechs that want to operate under local licences, which may be nudged toward using national tokens for fiat on- and off-ramps.
Over time, this could reduce the dominance of offshore dollar stablecoins in everyday transactions and regulated venues in these markets, even if they remain widely used in DeFi and cross-border flows.
Higher Barriers And Clearer Paths For Crypto Startups
For crypto-native firms in Asia, the message is mixed:
- On one hand, barriers to entry are higher. Issuing a compliant stablecoin will usually require partnering with banks, meeting bank-like standards and accepting supervisory scrutiny.
- On the other hand, the rules create a clear, legal path for those willing to align with regulators. Fintechs that can provide the technical stack, compliance tooling and use cases around bank-led stablecoins may find fertile ground.
Rather than outlawing private stablecoins outright, South Korea and Taiwan are drawing a sharp line between unregulated tokens and regulated, bank-anchored products.
Regional Context: An Asian Stablecoin Race
These moves also fit into a broader regional race:
- Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong already have, or are finalising, stablecoin regimes that emphasise strong reserves, licensing and sometimes bank involvement.
- The EU’s MiCA and the US GENIUS Act have raised the bar globally, nudging other jurisdictions to respond with their own frameworks.
South Korea and Taiwan appear to be choosing a path that combines:
- MiCA-style licensing and reserve rules
- US-style recognition of stablecoins as part of the mainstream financial system
- A distinctly Asian insistence on bank-centred control over money-like instruments
That combination could make their regimes relatively attractive to global institutions, while still limiting room for lightly regulated issuers.
Conclusion
South Korea’s draft Digital Asset Basic Act and Taiwan’s 2026 stablecoin roadmap show how quickly the conversation around stablecoins in Asia is moving from theory to detailed institutional design.
In both countries, the first generation of regulated stablecoins will be:
- Issued through bank-dominated structures
- Backed by high-quality domestic reserves
- Framed explicitly as part of the existing financial system, not as a parallel currency.
For global markets, these initiatives signal that Asia is not stepping back from stablecoins. Instead, it is re-architecting them around banks and national regulators, with an eye on both monetary control and competitiveness. How successfully South Korea and Taiwan implement these models will help determine whether “national stablecoins” become a defining feature of the next phase of the crypto and digital-money ecosystem.
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