Amid conflicting opinions from various sectors regarding the institutionalization of won-based stablecoins, a proposal has been raised to introduce an authorization system that guarantees investors' redemption rights and only permits collateralized stablecoins.
At the policy forum titled 'The Dawn of the Stablecoin Era, Are We Prepared?' held at the Yeouido Financial Investment Center on the 23rd, Hwang Se-woon, a senior researcher at the Korea Capital Market Institute, emphasized that "the starting point of user protection is the legalization of redemption rights" and stressed the urgent need to establish regulatory measures for stable operation and integration of stablecoins into the institutional framework.
Redemption rights refer to the legal right of investors to request the return of goods corresponding to the original value when returning issued assets under certain conditions. It is also considered a key safeguard for user protection in global stablecoin discussions.
The recently passed Genius Act in the United States also specifies redemption rights. According to the law, companies issuing stablecoins in the US must go through a disclosure procedure at least one week before changing fees, and even if the issuer goes bankrupt, stablecoin holders' claims have the highest priority for collateral assets.
On that day, the researcher proposed that "an authorization system should be introduced only for collateralized stablecoins, and the capital requirements for issuers should be strengthened" and that "a 1:1 collateral maintenance obligation should be imposed on reserve assets". He also added that reserve assets should be externally stored in a trustworthy trust institution, and measures such as disclosure of white papers and product descriptions, codification of damage compensation liability, and prohibition of interest payments are necessary for user protection.
He emphasized the need to prohibit interest payments to holders to prevent stablecoins from being misused as a currency substitute beyond payment and settlement functions. Furthermore, he suggested that overseas-issued stablecoins should be allowed to circulate domestically only when legal requirements are met, with sanctions such as suspension of circulation and imposition of surcharges for non-compliance.
The necessity of improving the supervisory system was also mentioned. The researcher explained that systematic supervision and foreign exchange control should be possible through strengthening supervisory powers of financial authorities and the Bank of Korea, enhancing anti-money laundering (AML) through special financial transaction law amendments, wallet-based customer verification, and foreign exchange transaction law revisions.
Kim Gab-rae, another presenter at the forum, stated that "the US and EU are addressing stablecoin regulation as part of their currency hegemony and financial stability strategies" and emphasized that "now is the golden time for institutionalization" in Korea.
He pointed out that in major countries like the US, EU, and Japan, stablecoins like USDT that do not meet regulatory requirements are gradually being eliminated from the market, while they still maintain a high trading proportion in Korea. He suggested that it is essential to create a structure that encourages domestic exchanges to voluntarily delist non-compliant coins, and that for won-based stablecoins, differentiated regulation based on issuance scale, functional regulation, legalization of user protection principles, and foreign exchange control infrastructure are necessary.
