CoinDesk
South Korea's Ministry of Economy and Finance laid out plans on Wednesday to revise the country's 1950 National Property Act so that virtual currencies and intellectual property are formally classified as national assets. The proposal, part of the ministry's economic policy roadmap, also calls for a broader legal framework to modernize management of state-owned property. The amendments to the Capital Markets Act and the Electronic Act are scheduled to take effect on February 4, 2027, giving blockchain-based ledgers formal recognition as security registries.
The roadmap doubles as South Korea's most concrete on-chain public finance push to date. Officials reaffirmed a 2027 pilot for tokenized government bonds, framed around cutting transaction costs and speeding up settlement, alongside plans to study tokenizing state-owned real estate for retail investors. The pilot will connect tokenized government bonds to the Bank of Korea's CBDC infrastructure, and the central bank is already running CBDC trials with commercial banks.
Why it matters
Putting crypto and IP inside the National Property Act is more than bookkeeping. It drags digital assets into the same legal perimeter as land, buildings, and state equities, and signals that Seoul intends to treat tokenized assets as core public infrastructure rather than experimental fintech. The explicit linkage between the 2027 government bond pilot and the Bank of Korea's CBDC backbone positions the country alongside a small group of jurisdictions building a full-stack on-chain settlement layer for sovereign debt.
Market impact
The clearest read-through is to the RWA and tokenization sector: a G7 economy giving blockchain ledgers legal weight as security registries, and explicitly planning CBDC interoperability, sets a regulatory floor under issuers and custodians eyeing institutional flows. It also reinforces the macro tailwind already visible in centralized exchange data, where CEX spot volumes rose 15.3% to $1.11T in June and RWA perpetual volumes hit a record $311B.
Frequently asked questions
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What is South Korea changing in its National Property Act?
The Ministry of Economy and Finance proposed revising the 1950 National Property Act so that virtual currencies and intellectual property are formally classified as national assets, modernizing the framework for state-owned property management.
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When will the tokenized government bond pilot launch?
South Korea plans to pilot tokenized government bonds in 2027, with the program connected to the Bank of Korea's central bank digital currency infrastructure.
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What legal changes take effect on February 4, 2027?
Amendments to the Capital Markets Act and the Electronic Act are scheduled to take effect on February 4, 2027, giving blockchain-based ledgers formal recognition as security registries.
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Will retail investors be able to buy tokenized state-owned real estate?
Officials said they are studying the tokenization of state-owned real estate to allow retail investors to participate and share in investment returns, though no launch date has been set.
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How does this connect to the Bank of Korea's CBDC project?
The 2027 tokenized government bond pilot will be linked to the Bank of Korea's CBDC infrastructure, and the government is studying interoperability between the central bank's blockchain network and other distributed ledger platforms.
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