South Korea Unveils KRW Internationalization Roadmap, Plans to Issue KRW-Pegged Stablecoin and Pilot Government Bond Tokenization

Odaily Planet Daily News: The South Korean government today unveiled its "KRW Internationalization Roadmap", aiming to transition the Korean won from a regulated currency to a freely convertible currency and establish an offshore KRW settlement network. The Bank of Korea will launch a system tentatively named the "Offshore KRW Settlement Network", which is expected to begin pilot operations in September this year and officially launch in January next year. South Korea will also build digital asset payment infrastructure to lay the foundation for the issuance, distribution, and trading of KRW-pegged stablecoins. It plans to launch a pilot project next year to promote the tokenization of government bonds linked to the central bank's digital currency (CBDC). In addition, South Korea will formally join the Agora project, a cross-border digital payment initiative led by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) that brings together the central banks of eight countries.