South Korea revises 76-year-old law to classify cryptocurrencies as national assets

South Korea's Ministry of Economy and Finance announced plans to revise the National Property Act, a law dating to 1950, to formally classify virtual currencies and intellectual property as national assets, according to CoinDesk's reporting of the ministry's July 15 economic policy roadmap. The change would permit the government to hold cryptocurrencies on its balance sheet and serve as the legal foundation for an emerging slate of blockchain-based finance pilots.

The move integrates digital assets into South Korea's state financial infrastructure at scale. The government intends to begin testing tokenized deposits for government spending in the fourth quarter of 2026, according to the roadmap, and pilot tokenized government bonds in 2027. During that 2027 trial, the Treasury plans to connect the tokenized bonds to the Bank of Korea's central bank digital currency infrastructure, per the announced plans.

State officials are also studying the tokenization of state-owned real estate, the ministry said, with the aim of allowing retail investors to participate in ownership and share in investment returns. The Bank of Korea has already launched trials of its CBDC with commercial banks, providing the foundational ledger infrastructure for this expansion.

Two supporting amendments to the Capital Markets Act and the Electronic Act are scheduled to take effect on February 4, 2027. These changes will give blockchain-ledger systems formal legal recognition as security registries, a structural requirement for any tokenized asset framework. The government said it will also study interoperability between the central bank's blockchain network and other distributed ledger platforms, though no design or timeline was disclosed.

The government's stated rationale is that blockchain technology can reduce transaction costs and accelerate transfers compared to traditional systems. The broad reclassification under the National Property Act, however, carries significant ambiguity. The ministry has not specified how it will define "virtual currencies" under the revised law, leaving unclear whether the definition will encompass all cryptocurrencies or a curated subset, and what regulatory scope the classification implies.

The timeline for completion of the National Property Act revision itself remains unannounced. The February 4, 2027 date applies only to the Capital Markets and Electronic Act amendments. The 2027 bond pilot and real estate tokenization studies are contingent on undefined preparatory phases; no success metrics or conditions for wider rollout have been disclosed by officials.

Broad structural readiness aside, interoperability between the Bank of Korea's blockchain and external distributed ledger platforms is only under study, with no commitment or technical design specifics made public.