South Korea Aims to Tokenize Its Entire Stock Market: The Plan Already Has a Date

• Licensed securities firms will be able to operate without additional procedures.
• Retail investors on OTC platforms will have an annual limit of $74,000.

On September 4, 2026, South Korea's Financial Services Commission (FSC) presented a three-phase roadmap to tokenize stocks, bonds, and funds on a blockchain. The announcement was made during the third meeting of a public-private advisory body on tokenized securities, held at the Korea Securities Depository in Seoul.

The plan creates an infrastructure applicable to what the regulator termed "all types" of securities, and not just to fractional investment products covered by the previous framework. The FSC detailed the guidelines in an official statement.

The first phase will begin when the reformed securities law comes into effect on February 4, 2027. In this stage, private placement money market funds and corporate bonds will be tokenized for institutional investors, unlisted stocks issued through a trust structure, and publicly offered fractional investment securities.

The second phase will expand the system to all publicly offered securities, while the third and final stage aims to build a settlement system directly on the blockchain, allowing investors to settle their tokenized transactions using stablecoins.

The FSC established conditions to protect investors and guide firms in the sector. Existing securities firms will be able to operate with tokenized securities using their current licenses, without the need to apply for a new one.

Retail investors using over-the-counter (OTC) platforms will have an annual net purchase limit of 100 million won (about $74,000) per platform. For new fractional investment products, the subscription limit will be 30 million won (about $22,000) or 5% of the total transaction amount, whichever is lower.

Non-bank issuers must have 4 billion won (approximately $3 million) in capital, along with dedicated personnel for account management, regulatory compliance, and the operation of IT systems.

The announcement comes at a time when South Korea is advancing on various fronts of its digital asset policy. By mid-2025, the FSC had already announced a plan to approve spot bitcoin ETFs, along with a promise of stablecoin regulation based on the won through the Digital Asset Basic Act.

This regulatory push also coincides with movements from the South Korean private sector towards digital assets, such as Hyundai Card's trials with USDT and Samsung Wallet's plans to natively integrate stablecoins into its phones.

With the tokenization of securities advancing alongside stablecoin regulation and South Korea's leadership in semiconductors, the country is simultaneously building the two pillars that support its digital bet: the financial infrastructure and the industrial capacity that backs it. The date of February 4, 2027, marks only the first phase of a plan that, according to the FSC itself, aims to completely transform the infrastructure of its capital markets.

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