South Korea Regulators Publish Roadmap for Tokenized Securities

South Korea’s Financial Services Commission (FSC) has outlined a three-phase plan to build the legal and technical foundation for issuing tokenized securities covering assets such as stocks, bonds, and funds. The roadmap is designed to bring tokenization into the country’s existing capital markets framework rather than treating it as a separate, unregulated activity.

In a press release published Friday, the FSC said tokenized securities will gain formal legal recognition as digitized forms of securities once an update to the Act on Electronic Registration of Stocks and Bonds takes effect on Feb. 4, 2027. The implementation schedule is closely tied to a broader roll-out of amended capital markets and electronic securities laws.

Key takeaways

• Legal status begins Feb. 4, 2027, when an amendment to the Act on Electronic Registration of Stocks and Bonds takes effect for tokenized securities.
• Phase 1 (from recognition) covers institutional money market funds, bonds, unlisted stocks, and fractional investment securities.
• Phase 2 broadens scope by extending tokenization to all publicly offered securities.
• Phase 3 targets onchain settlement by pursuing onchain payments linked to stablecoins.
• The FSC will coordinate with the Korea Securities Depository (KSD) to build the necessary tokenization infrastructure.

What South Korea’s FSC is changing in 2027

The FSC’s roadmap hinges on a legal shift: tokenized securities will be treated as digitized versions of traditional securities under South Korea’s electronic registration framework. According to the FSC, the change is expected to take effect on Feb. 4, 2027, after the relevant statutory update becomes operational.

Once this happens, tokenized instruments will not merely be “technology-layered securities.” Instead, they will be recognized within the legal system governing stock and bond registration—an important distinction for issuers, investors, and intermediaries who need clarity on rights, governance, and compliance.

For market participants, legal recognition is often the prerequisite for scalable issuance and broader participation. Without it, tokenized products typically face uncertainty around transferability, custody, and the enforcement of investor protections. The FSC’s plan aims to close those gaps by integrating tokenized securities into the capital markets regime.

Phase 1: recognition for a limited set of products

In the first stage, the FSC said tokenized securities will receive legal recognition across several categories, including institutional money market funds, bonds, unlisted stocks, and fractional investment securities. This sequencing matters because it starts with markets where regulators can more directly define operational boundaries while the infrastructure and oversight processes are still being established.

The FSC also tied the roadmap to the planned implementation of two legislative components: an amended Capital Markets Act and an Electronic Securities Act, which together form what the FSC describes as the country’s first tokenized securities framework. Earlier in the process, the FSC had indicated it was preparing detailed tokenized securities rules aimed at bringing tokenized securities under South Korea’s capital markets framework in 2027, an approach noted in earlier reporting (see Cointelegraph coverage of the regulator’s May statements).

The practical question for Phase 1 participants will be how tokenization is handled end-to-end—issuance, registration, transfers, and custody—especially for instruments like fractional investment securities where the unit of ownership may differ from legacy models.

Phase 2 and Phase 3: expanding issuance and testing new payment rails

Phase two of the FSC roadmap is set to expand tokenization to all publicly offered securities. This is a significant step up from the Phase 1 list because it implies broader availability of tokenized products to retail and institutional participants under the same umbrella rules.

However, the FSC did not assign a specific public date for the transition to Phase 2 in the press release. Instead, it said it will determine the timing after submitting and refining subordinate regulations.

The third phase introduces an additional technological ambition: onchain payments linked to stablecoins. In other words, the FSC is not only aiming to tokenize the asset layer (securities issuance and ownership records), but also to modernize parts of the settlement process. Stablecoins are referenced here as the linkage for onchain payment settlement, reflecting the regulator’s attempt to align tokenized securities workflows with digital payment mechanisms.

That said, major implementation details—such as which stablecoin frameworks (if any) would be considered, how payment flows would be controlled, and what oversight would apply—are not specified in the release. Market watchers will likely focus on the subordinate rule revisions that the FSC plans to propose after consultation with relevant stakeholders.

Regulatory coordination and what investors should monitor next

The FSC said it will work with the Korea Securities Depository (KSD) to develop the necessary tokenization infrastructure before the roadmap’s initiation. That coordination is a practical signal: tokenized securities can only scale if the core market plumbing—especially registration and transfer processes—is adapted to handle tokenized formats reliably.

Following the roadmap announcement, the FSC also indicated it plans to propose revisions to relevant subordinate regulations by the end of September and then decide the timeline for phases two and three. For investors and platform builders, that regulatory and technical rulemaking period is likely to be the most consequential window for understanding how compliance will work in practice.

It’s also worth placing the roadmap in the context of South Korea’s wider regulatory movement around tokenized assets. In May, the FSC said it would release detailed tokenized securities rules in 2027 to bring tokenized securities under the capital markets framework, according to earlier coverage (see Cointelegraph). Separately, in April, South Korea’s Ministry of Economy and Finance announced a pilot project involving tokenized deposits to execute government operational spending, with a full rollout targeted for the fourth quarter of 2026 (see Cointelegraph).

Taken together, the developments point to a regulator that is treating tokenization as a structured modernization of finance—starting with legal recognition, then expanding product coverage, and finally testing settlement innovations that could connect onchain activity with regulated payment processes.

For now, the key watchpoints are the end-of-September subordinate regulation revisions, the precise operational requirements that will govern tokenization infrastructure with KSD, and how Phase 3 will handle stablecoin-linked onchain payments in a way that preserves investor protections and settlement finality.