South Korea will allow companies to invest in cryptocurrencies with restrictions on stablecoins

• South Korea is preparing rules for corporate crypto investments.
• At the same time, regulators may ban the use of $USDT and $USDC.
• However, companies will not be prohibited from conducting transactions through personal crypto wallets, foreign exchanges, and OTC platforms.

Financial regulators in South Korea are preparing new rules that will allow public companies to invest in cryptocurrencies, although dollar-pegged stablecoins may be excluded from the list of permitted assets. This concerns $USDT and $USDC, which are widely used in international settlements. This was reported by local media.

According to the reports, this position is being formed as part of the preparation of the “Guidelines for Corporate Cryptocurrency Trading”, which are being developed by the country’s financial regulator. The document is expected to define the rules under which listed companies and professional investors will be able to use digital assets for investment or financial management.

At the same time, regulators are leaning toward excluding stablecoins from the list of permitted investments.

Reason — legal conflict with currency legislation

The main reason for this decision is that stablecoins are currently not recognized as a legal means of international payment under the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act.

According to this law, all cross-border payments must pass through officially designated foreign exchange banks, while the use of stablecoins for international settlements is not legally regulated.

Including such assets in corporate investment instruments could create a legal contradiction, since companies would effectively gain the ability to use them in trade operations.

At the same time, the South Korean parliament is already considering a bill that would recognize stablecoins as a means of payment. The document has been under committee review since October 2025.

It should be recalled that the Bank of Korea previously urged banks to issue stablecoins instead of private companies.

Businesses asked to allow $USDT and $USDC

The regulator’s decision could become a serious blow for South Korean companies that have been waiting for years for permission to make crypto investments.

Some publicly listed companies engaged in international trade asked the authorities to allow them to use $USDT and $USDC for settlements with partners. According to them, stablecoins allow:

• faster and cheaper payments
• use of real exchange rates in real time
• currency hedging in international trade

However, the regulator likely aims to direct international payments through the banking foreign exchange system, as well as prevent “indiscriminate investments” in crypto assets during the early stage of market development.

Despite the potential restriction within the new rules, stablecoin trading will not be completely prohibited. Companies will still be able to buy or sell them through:

• personal crypto wallets (for example, MetaMask)
• over-the-counter platforms (OTC)
• foreign cryptocurrency exchanges

A source close to the working group stated that the decision has essentially already been made.

“I understand that the working group on corporate rules has completed discussions on this issue. The decision is final.”

The new rules are expected to be announced in the coming weeks, in parallel with the progress of the digital assets bill.

It is worth noting that the country’s government recently decided to review the system for managing confiscated digital assets in state institutions. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance Koo Yun-cheol said that the authorities will conduct an audit of how government agencies store and manage seized cryptocurrencies.

See also: "Bitcoin trades around $67,000 as oil prices surge"

#Stablecoins #South Korea

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