FSC chief says government bill on digital asset framework is ready

Financial Services Commission Chairman Lee Eok-won said Wednesday that the government has finished drafting its bill on a basic digital asset framework, but that some outstanding disagreements remain before it can be submitted to the National Assembly.

Lee made the remarks at a National Assembly Political Affairs Committee briefing, responding to a question from Rebuilding Korea Party lawmaker Lee Hae-min about when the government plans to submit the bill, which covers the issuance of won-denominated stablecoins and supervisory authority over them.

"The draft is all ready, but there are some areas where we still have minor disagreements," Lee said. "Now that the second-half Assembly session has been organized, we will move as quickly as possible."

Lee Hae-min, an IT specialist known for his background at Google, said the government needs to give a concrete timeline for submitting the bill. He noted that the United States' stablecoin regulation law, the GENIUS Act, takes effect in January next year, and that Japan and the EU are also moving to establish their own regulatory frameworks.

"Our country's bill submission has been delayed for half a year," he said. "The FSC and the Bank of Korea should announce a specific date for when they plan to submit a coordinated government bill covering the issuance of won-denominated stablecoins and supervisory authority, so the market can plan accordingly."

Lee Hae-min also called on the government to include provisions in the digital asset framework bill addressing stablecoin payments made through AI agents, arguing that AI agents — rather than humans — could become the primary parties to stablecoin transactions in the future.

"We now live in a world where an AI agent searches for flights, communicates with a counterpart agent, compares prices and completes payment," he said. "Stablecoins are a strong tool for handling small, high-frequency automated payments and per-second transactions." He added that the bill should establish a framework for safe distribution rather than trying to block such activity, pointing to use cases such as releasing payment upon confirmed delivery or programming conditions into code — for example, charging 1 won each time an API (application programming interface) is called — and said regulators should focus on building a system that allows stablecoins to circulate safely rather than assuming the problem can be solved by blocking them.

Lee Hae-min said he had reviewed the draft bill and found it assumes human-to-human payment, noting that it lacks provisions on how to apply know-your-customer rules to transactions conducted in the name of an AI agent, how to assign liability for erroneous payments, and how to handle foreign exchange reporting for cross-border transactions.

He added, however, that he was not calling for detailed standards to be set immediately. "What we need is to open the door for the regime to expand in the future by including delegation clauses and definitional provisions in the law," he said.