South Korea advances tokenized securities rules ahead of 2027 rollout

South Korea’s Financial Services Commission has proposed detailed rules for issuing and trading tokenized securities, with the new framework expected to take effect in February 2027. The proposal would allow assets such as stocks, bonds, funds and some fractional investment products to be issued and circulated in tokenized form. It also sets requirements for firms that issue and manage these securities, including a minimum equity capital of 4 billion won, or about $2.8 million, for companies that directly handle customer accounts, along with dedicated compliance and technology staff. The draft rules would also add a separate overthecounter exchange license for debt securities and limit retail investors to 100 million won, or about $70,000, in annual net purchases on each OTC exchange. The proposal follows a threephase roadmap announced earlier this month and will be open for public consultation until Nov. 11 before moving through the approval process.