South Korea's ruling Democratic Party has posted a draft Digital Asset Basic Act that would move the country beyond its current investor-protection-only regime and into a broader rulebook for issuance, trading, custody, and supervision. The proposal appeared Wednesday on the National Assembly's public lawmaking portal, giving the market a first detailed look at how Seoul may structure its next phase of crypto regulation.

What the draft covers

According to the bill summary, the framework would define both digital assets and value-linked digital assets, then introduce authorization, registration, and reporting rules for different classes of digital-asset businesses. For stablecoin-like products, the draft calls for issuer approval, refund reserve requirements, and redemption obligations.

The proposal also sketches governance and conduct rules that look much closer to mainstream financial regulation than earlier crypto-specific guardrails. It includes disclosure standards, internal controls, risk-management requirements, oversight powers for the Financial Services Commission, and prohibitions on unfair trading practices such as market manipulation and misuse of non-public information.

Why it matters

The bill is still only a proposal, not enacted law, and key political fights, including who should be allowed to issue won-backed stablecoins, are not settled. Still, the draft is notable because it bundles market structure, issuer rules, and supervisory authority into a single framework instead of treating stablecoins as a narrow side issue.

If advanced, it would give South Korea one of its clearest attempts yet at a full-stack digital-asset law.