South Korea to Push AI "Mega Projects" and Expand CBDC, Bond Tokenization Trials in 2H 2026
AI Market Summary
South Korea's 2H26 agenda signals accelerating institutional adoption: a Digital Assets Basic Act, CBDC-linked government bond tokenization pilots, and a framework for cross-border stablecoins. Planned Capital Markets Act revisions to enable spot crypto ETFs would broaden onshore access and liquidity. Interoperability research and carbon-credit tokenization add longer-term infrastructure tailwinds. Separately, a large semiconductor and AI capex push supports the digital economy stack that underpins crypto and tokenization.
Impact level
● Medium
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AI Insight · BTC/USDTAI Insight
▲ Bullish
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South Korea will press ahead with building its blockchain and digital-asset economy in the second half of 2026, the Ministry of Economy and Finance said on July 14, according to Huo Xing Finance.
Key priorities include advancing the Digital Assets Basic Act, starting a pilot to tokenize government bonds tied to institutional central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), and studying interoperability between CBDCs and other blockchain networks. The government also plans to craft a legal framework for cross-border stablecoin transactions and to revise the Capital Markets Act to provide a legal basis for launching Korea's first spot crypto ETFs.
In addition, officials will explore using blockchain to manage and trade carbon credits in the Global Voluntary Carbon Market (GVCM).
AI has been set as a central economic focus for the second half of the year. The government designated physical AI, AI data centers, and semiconductors as three "Mega Projects", and plans to invest about 800 trillion won to build new semiconductor manufacturing capacity and double storage chip capacity over the next five years.
