U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Paul Atkins said the regulator is prepared to write crypto market rules if Congress fails to pass the CLARITY Act, offering an agency-led fallback as Senate negotiations continue.

Atkins told CNBC that the SEC was “ready, willing and able” to address issues covered by the bill through its existing authority. However, he said legislation remained the preferred route because “statute is the way to future-proof something.” His comments describe the agency’s intended approach rather than a completed rulemaking action.

On July 28, Atkins also said publicly that the SEC was providing Congress with technical assistance as lawmakers worked on the legislation.

SEC can act, but it cannot replace Congress

The SEC has already placed several crypto initiatives on its 2026 regulatory agenda. Atkins said the agency intends to create clearer rules for crypto fundraising, custody and the trading of tokenized securities onchain.

However, the SEC is considering proposals covering crypto assets, broker-dealers and market structure. Those projects could clarify token offerings, financial responsibility requirements and trading through securities exchanges or alternative trading systems.

However, agency rules have limits. The SEC cannot independently give the Commodity Futures Trading Commission broad statutory authority over digital commodity spot markets. It also cannot permanently stop a future SEC administration from revising or withdrawing regulations.

Atkins acknowledged that distinction in earlier remarks, saying notice-and-comment rules could strengthen the SEC’s approach but that legislation offered the strongest protection against future policy reversals.

CLARITY Act has cleared committees but not the Senate

The House passed the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act in July 2025 by a 294-134 vote. The Senate Agriculture Committee later advanced its Digital Commodity Intermediaries Act in January 2026, proposing a CFTC registration system for digital commodity trading platforms.

Meanwhile, the Senate Banking Committee approved its version of the CLARITY Act by a 15-9 vote on May 14. The committee said the legislation would divide oversight between the SEC and CFTC while creating disclosure, registration and customer-protection rules.

Sen. Cynthia Lummis released updated legislation on July 22 that merged work from both Senate committees. She described the coming weeks as potentially the “last real chance” to pass the framework for several years. That statement reflects her political assessment, not a formal legislative deadline.

As of July 30, the full Senate had not voted on the merged bill. It would still need sufficient support to overcome procedural hurdles, pass the chamber and reconcile any differences with the House-approved text.

Negotiations have continued over ethics rules for elected officials and restrictions on rewards paid to stablecoin holders. Banking groups argue that interest-like stablecoin products could draw deposits away from traditional lenders, while crypto companies say broad limits could restrict lawful customer rewards.

Neither position has become final law. The updated Senate materials include separate sections addressing stablecoin interest and ethics, showing that both subjects remain part of the negotiations.

In addition, CLARITY Act passage odds fell to 27% on Polymarket on July 29 as traders reacted to the delayed Senate timetable. That figure represents prediction-market pricing and does not provide an independent forecast of congressional action.

What happens if Congress does not act

The SEC could publish proposed rules under the Administrative Procedure Act. The process would normally include public comments, commission consideration and possible revisions before any final rule takes effect.

Such rules could provide clearer treatment for token issuance, registered intermediaries and securities trading. However, they would not create the full SEC-CFTC division of authority proposed by the CLARITY Act.

Congress may still take up the merged legislation later in 2026. Until a floor vote is scheduled, the SEC’s regulatory agenda will continue moving separately from the bill.

No verified cryptocurrency price movement can be attributed solely to Atkins’s comments. The next confirmed developments will depend on either formal Senate floor action or the publication of SEC rule proposals.

Ostium has concluded that its July exploit originated from compromised off-chain infrastructure rather than a flaw in its smart contracts, after an investigation found the attacker manipulated price reporting to drain 23.75 million USDC from the protocol’s liquidity vault.

According to Ostium’s post-mortem published on Wednesday, the attacker gained unauthorized access to the protocol’s off-chain infrastructure and used it to submit fraudulent BTC-USD price reports. 

The manipulated reports allowed the attacker to create artificial trading profits at the expense of the public OLP vault, while the protocol found no evidence that its smart contracts or governance multisigs had been compromised.

Ostium says exploit bypassed off-chain systems

During its investigation, Ostium said the initial breach occurred outside the protocol’s on-chain infrastructure. The team stated that its findings did not identify any vulnerability in the protocol’s smart contract logic or any compromise involving the multisigs responsible for governing the protocol.

Instead, the attacker abused forwarder paths that the protocol already recognized as valid. Ostium explained that the exploit began with a small test transaction involving a 100 USDC position, producing roughly 897.8 USDC in artificial profit before the attacker expanded the operation.

Following the successful test, the attacker executed the primary batch of transactions, transferring about 11.9 million USDC to a beneficiary wallet. Ostium said six additional standalone exploit cycles followed, bringing the total loss from the OLP vault to 23.75 million USDC.

Earlier reporting from blockchain security firm Blockaid had attributed the incident to a compromised oracle signer private key, saying the attacker bypassed the protocol’s price verification process by submitting manipulated price reports through a registered PriceUpKeep forwarder. At the time, Blockaid estimated that between $11.86 million and $18 million USDC had been withdrawn during approximately 20 trading loops, based on the exploit activity visible on-chain while the attack was still unfolding.

Automated monitoring limited additional losses

While the exploit succeeded in draining funds from the liquidity vault, Ostium said its automated monitoring systems detected the abnormal activity before additional withdrawals could take place. The protocol subsequently halted trading while its investigation continued and has since migrated to a new production environment with updated security controls.

Trading resumed on July 23 after the migration was completed.

Ostium also said trader collateral remained unaffected throughout the incident because user margin stayed inside the protocol’s trading contracts rather than the compromised liquidity pool.

The team added that it is still finalizing a separate recovery plan for liquidity providers whose funds were affected by the exploit. According to the protocol, further details will be released in a dedicated update.

Oracle infrastructure remained central to the attack

Although Ostium’s latest report attributes the incident to unauthorized access to its off-chain infrastructure, its findings are consistent with the attack path previously outlined by Blockaid, which concluded that compromised signing credentials allowed fraudulent price reports to pass the protocol’s verification process.

According to Blockaid’s earlier analysis, the attacker repeatedly opened and closed positions through delegated actions after submitting favorable future-dated price reports. Because the manipulated reports appeared valid to the protocol, each trading cycle generated profits for the attacker while transferring losses to the OLP liquidity vault instead of relying on a vulnerability in the smart contract code itself.

The incident has drawn attention to the security of supporting infrastructure that decentralized finance protocols rely on for external market data. In Ostium’s case, both the protocol’s post-mortem and Blockaid’s earlier investigation concluded that the exploit did not originate from flaws in the core smart contracts.

Ostium exploit followed Nasdaq partnership

The exploit occurred only weeks after Ostium expanded its institutional presence through a partnership with Nasdaq announced in May. At the time, the protocol said Nasdaq’s market data would support equity perpetual products listed on the platform.

Ostium also disclosed during that announcement that it had processed more than $50 billion in cumulative trading volume.

Before the exploit, the protocol had raised approximately $27.8 million from investors including General Catalyst, Jump Crypto, Coinbase Ventures, Wintermute and GSR, according to previous company disclosures.

Canadian Bitcoin hardware maker Coinkite has warned users of its Coldcard Mk3 signing device to move funds from wallets whose seed phrases were generated on affected firmware. 

On Thursday, Coinkite said seeds created on an Mk3 running firmware version 4.0.1, released in March 2021, or any later Mk3 version may put funds at risk. The issue extends through version 5.0.3, the final firmware supporting the Mk3, while the Mk4, Q and Mk5 are not affected, according to the company’s early analysis.

The warning comes as Bitcoin security specialists examine an unexplained, coordinated sweep involving 594.48 BTC from single-signature addresses. However, no definitive public evidence has established that the Mk3 issue caused those transfers.

“Out of an abundance of caution,” Coinkite urged affected users to generate a new seed on an unaffected device, verify its backup and receive address, send a small test transaction and only then move the remaining funds. The company said its investigation is ongoing and promised a formal technical review.

Coinkite said its early analysis indicates that affected seeds used with a BIP-39 passphrase face minimal risk, stressing that this refers to a passphrase rather than the Coldcard PIN.

Experts examine 594 BTC sweep

The sweep attracted attention after a Reddit user said funds had been drained from a wallet whose seed was generated on a Coldcard Mk3 bought in May 2021. 

The user said the seed was later restored onto a Coldcard Mk4 in January 2026, meaning it had subsequently been entered into a second device. The account is self-reported and does not establish a connection between Coldcard and the broader sweep.

In a preliminary analysis posted on Friday, AnchorWatch CEO and co-founder Rob Hamilton said that 1,324 unspent transaction outputs were swept across 500 transactions within a three-block window, moving 594.48 BTC. 

At the time of writing, the 594.48 BTC was worth approximately $38.3 million, based on a Bitcoin price of $64,364.07, according to CoinGecko.

Hamilton said all the addresses involved were single-signature and that 562 BTC was later consolidated into another address. “At a glance, this looks like there was flawed entropy in wallet generation somewhere along the way,” he wrote. 

Related: Thousands of crypto wallets at risk from ‘Ill Bloom’ vulnerability: Coinspect

Separately, Wizardsardine CEO Kevin Loaec said his current hypothesis is that a low-entropy random-number generator, potentially in a software library, secure element or particular device batch or firmware version, produced wallet seeds with insufficient randomness.

He suggested that an attacker who knew of the flaw may have used an AI-generated script to brute-force affected wallets, but searched only a limited range of BIP-84 derivation paths. That could explain why the sweep appears concentrated in native SegWit addresses and why some wallets were only partially drained, though Loaec stressed that the theory remains unconfirmed. 

Loaec warned that, if his hypothesis is correct, wallets that were only partially drained may remain at risk of further theft. He added that funds held in other address types could also be exposed if the attacker expands the scan to include them.

Magazine: Inside the ‘fake police raid’ that forced a $1M Bitcoin transfer

Aave founder Stani Kulechov said on July 30 that the lending protocol plans to retire dozens of low-use asset reserves and wind down its deployments on six blockchain networks.

The changes cover approximately $98.1 million in supplied assets and $15.6 million in debt. However, the measures originate from an Aave governance proposal and require DAO approval before full implementation.

The proposal would remove 50 individual reserves, retire 21 matured Pendle principal tokens and close 25 reserves across Sonic, Scroll, zkSync, Metis, Soneium and Aptos.

Aave’s six smaller markets have lost most deposits

The six complete deployments hold $12.8 million in combined supply and $4.1 million in debt. Sonic is the largest, with $7.6 million supplied and $2.7 million borrowed. Its deposits have fallen 74% over six months.

Scroll deposits declined 86% to $2.2 million, while zkSync fell 88% to $844,000. Metis and Soneium dropped to $297,000 and $173,000, respectively. Aptos liquidity fell 94% over six months, leaving $1.7 million supplied and $719,000 borrowed.

LlamaRisk said these deployments generated too little revenue to cover the cost of maintaining price feeds, monitoring systems and operational support. That conclusion reflects the risk provider’s assessment and remains subject to governance review.

Fifty reserves face removal across larger deployments

The remaining proposal targets 50 low-adoption reserves and 21 matured Pendle principal tokens across 11 Aave deployments. Together, they account for $85.3 million in supplied assets and $11.5 million in debt.

Assets marked for removal include low-use collateral, older bridged tokens and duplicate versions of assets that now have native alternatives. For example, bridged USDC variants would be removed from some markets where native USDC is already available.

The largest affected positions include the FBTC and eBTC wrappers on Ethereum. Together, they hold about $16.3 million in supply but only around $63,000 in borrowing. Their balances have fallen sharply because the expected demand for using them as collateral did not develop.

As previously reported, Aave DAO began exploring Pendle principal tokens in 2025. The latest proposal would retire 21 tokens that have reached maturity while allowing newer maturities to replace them where appropriate.

Aave would initially freeze affected reserves and reduce supply and borrowing caps to one unit. Existing positions could remain open, but users would be unable to make new deposits, borrow more funds or use the affected assets as fresh collateral.

For markets with outstanding loans, the proposal would raise the reserve factor, directing more interest to the Aave treasury and reducing returns for suppliers. Whole-market closures would use a 99% reserve factor and a 5% base borrowing rate to encourage borrowers to repay and depositors to withdraw.

If borrowers do not repay, risk managers could raise borrowing rates further. Liquidation thresholds may also be reduced gradually when officials determine that remaining collateral positions create excessive exposure.

Once positions have largely unwound, Aave plans to replace live price feeds with fixed-price oracles before completely retiring the six markets.

DAO approval remains the next step

The proposal is currently at the Aave Request for Comment stage. Under the standard governance process, an ARFC normally proceeds to an off-chain Snapshot vote before reaching a binding Aave Improvement Proposal and on-chain vote.

Therefore, users do not need to close their positions immediately solely because of Kulechov’s announcement. The exact implementation schedule will depend on community feedback, voting and the preparation of the required technical transactions.

The move marks a retreat from Aave’s earlier push to deploy broadly across emerging networks. Aave previously expanded to Linea after receiving DAO approval.

At the same time, the protocol is concentrating resources on Aave V4, institutional markets and higher-use deployments. As crypto.news reported, the DAO approved $25 million in funding to support that strategy.

Aave remains the largest decentralized lending protocol, with about $14.5 billion in total value locked across 23 chains.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has introduced legislation aimed at creating a dedicated US anti-corruption bureau, arguing that existing oversight is not designed to stop presidents from profiting while in office—an accusation he ties directly to President Donald Trump’s cryptocurrency-related investments.

Schumer’s proposal, the Anti-Corruption Bureau Creation Act, would establish a new federal agency with authority to “investigate, enforce, and prevent executive branch corruption,” according to a Thursday announcement from Schumer’s office. The bill also seeks to consolidate key ethics and enforcement bodies under one roof—an approach lawmakers supporting the measure say could strengthen accountability more than the current “patchwork” of watchdogs.

Key takeaways

• Schumer’s bill would create a new federal anti-corruption bureau with investigative, enforcement, and preventive powers focused on executive branch conduct.
• The legislation points to reported Trump earnings from investments, including cryptocurrency exposure, as part of a broader argument for tighter safeguards.
• The proposed bureau would incorporate the Federal Election Commission, the Office of Government Ethics, and the Office of Special Counsel into a single structure.
• Supporters are also pushing the measure alongside continued negotiations over the Senate’s crypto market-structure effort, the CLARITY Act, which still lacks a scheduled vote.
• Even if the bureau legislation clears Congress, Trump could veto it; overriding a veto would require a two-thirds majority in both chambers.

A new enforcement model pitched as a response to crypto-related conflicts

In a statement released with the bill introduction, Schumer said he had introduced the Anti-Corruption Bureau Creation Act to address executive branch corruption more directly. The proposal is built around Congress’ findings—stated in the bill text—that Trump disclosed earning more than $2 billion from investments in 2025, including $1.4 billion associated with cryptocurrency, and that his family holds more than $1 billion in a crypto fund tied to foreign governments.

Schumer framed the new agency as having “real teeth,” emphasizing that it would include enforcement authority rather than acting only as a monitor. He also said the bureau would be staffed by a bipartisan group of seven members confirmed by the Senate.

To address remedies for wrongdoing, the bill includes mechanisms allowing private citizens and state authorities to pursue recovery of funds that Schumer described as stolen from Americans “through corruption.”

“This new bureau is one where these institutions work in symbiosis, strengthening each other and eliminating barriers between them which often got in the way,” Schumer said. “It replaces a broken patchwork of watchdogs, none of which were built for this moment, with one, powerful anti-corruption agency, ready to act anywhere, anytime corruption strikes.”

White House pushes back on conflict claims tied to investment accounts

The anti-corruption push arrives amid persistent Democratic criticism of Trump’s involvement in the crypto industry while in office. Schumer’s office noted concerns that have also hovered over the Senate’s broader crypto policy effort, the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act.

While the White House agreed to certain ethics provisions in CLARITY, many lawmakers have argued those changes do not adequately address potential conflicts of interest.

In a statement to Cointelegraph, White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly reiterated the administration’s position that there were “no conflicts of interest” related to Trump’s investments. Kelly said the investments were “held in fully discretionary accounts managed by independent third-party financial institutions.”

Consolidating ethics and enforcement under one “roof”

A notable feature of Schumer’s bill is its plan to reorganize parts of the federal oversight landscape. The proposal would place the US Federal Election Commission, the Office of Government Ethics, and the Office of Special Counsel “under one roof” within the new bureau.

The intent, as described in Schumer’s remarks, is to reduce the friction between agencies and streamline action when corruption is alleged—an argument he made by contrasting the proposed bureau with what he characterized as outdated or mismatched oversight structures.

Schumer introduced the bill with cosponsors Andy Kim, Alex Padilla, and Jeff Merkley.

What’s happening with the Senate’s CLARITY Act remains uncertain

Schumer’s anti-corruption initiative is moving alongside a separate, more technical fight in the Senate: whether and when the CLARITY Act will advance.

The article notes that the Senate has just over a week before lawmakers break for a month-long state work period. That calendar pressure is heightening uncertainty for pending legislation, including CLARITY, especially as lawmakers face the prospect of competing priorities ahead of the 2026 midterms.

As of Thursday, the Senate had not scheduled a vote on the CLARITY Act, despite encouragement from some Republican lawmakers and industry figures. Former Securities and Exchange Commission official John Reed Stark said the situation is difficult to predict, describing “enormous drama” surrounding the bill and stating that experts he spoke with could not confidently forecast what would happen that week.

Industry leaders have also signaled confidence while acknowledging timing risks. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said the bill was at the “one-yard line,” while Senator Cynthia Lummis continued pushing for a vote, according to posts cited in the report.

Legislative math: momentum doesn’t eliminate veto risk

Even if Schumer’s anti-corruption bureau legislation gains traction, it still faces major hurdles. The bill would require Republican support in both chambers to pass, with the party holding only a slim majority in the Senate. If it clears the Senate and House before 2028, President Trump could still veto the legislation.

Overriding a presidential veto would require a two-thirds majority in both the House and Senate, leaving the outcome dependent on whether Democrats can sustain enough cross-party backing.

For crypto watchers, the near-term focus is likely to split: whether the Senate can find a path forward on the CLARITY Act before its schedule runs out, and whether Schumer’s anti-corruption bureau proposal gains enough bipartisan traction to survive both legislative and veto thresholds—especially given the ongoing dispute over how (or whether) current ethics arrangements address potential conflicts tied to crypto.

Samsung SDS has identified stablecoin infrastructure as the first major collaboration area under its investment in Dunamu, outlining plans to combine blockchain, AI and cloud technologies as part of its digital asset strategy.

According to Samsung SDS during its second-quarter earnings conference call on Wednesday, the company has been discussing stablecoin infrastructure, AI-powered next-generation payments and virtual asset financial system integration with Dunamu, the operator of South Korea’s largest cryptocurrency exchange Upbit.

Samsung SDS has outlined how its Dunamu investment will be used

Samsung SDS President Lee Joon-hee said the company’s stake in Dunamu was made to enter the digital asset infrastructure business rather than as a financial investment. He said Samsung SDS intends to combine Dunamu’s blockchain operating experience with its own IT services, artificial intelligence, cloud computing and cybersecurity capabilities to strengthen digital financial infrastructure.

Lee added that the companies are considering business opportunities spanning stablecoin infrastructure, AI-based payment systems and system integration services built around virtual assets. According to Samsung SDS, discussions are continuing as both sides work toward developing concrete business models.

The comments provide the clearest description yet of Samsung SDS’s plans after it invested in Dunamu earlier this year.

In May, Samsung Securities, Samsung SDS and Samsung Card agreed to acquire a combined 4% stake in Dunamu for 612.8 billion won, or about $408 million, by purchasing 1.39 million shares from Kakao-linked entities. Samsung SDS acquired a 1% stake, while Samsung Securities purchased 2% and Samsung Card acquired the remaining 1%.

At the time, Samsung SDS said it planned to combine its AI, cloud, security and data management services with Dunamu’s blockchain expertise, while Dunamu said it expected cooperation on blockchain investment products, payment infrastructure and AI-related blockchain applications.

Stablecoin plans extend Samsung’s digital asset push

The latest comments come less than a week after Samsung Electronics disclosed plans to bring stablecoin support to Samsung Wallet.

During the Galaxy Unpacked event on July 24, Samsung Electronics said the wallet application will support stablecoins alongside payments, rewards and digital assets, although it did not disclose launch dates, supported tokens, blockchain networks or regional availability.

Product manager Lee Dinham said at the event that Samsung Wallet would expand beyond conventional payment functions to include stablecoins, allowing users to transfer digital value directly from compatible Galaxy devices.

Together, the wallet announcement and Samsung SDS’s latest remarks indicate that Samsung’s digital asset initiatives now extend from consumer payment products to the infrastructure supporting blockchain-based financial services.

The direction also differs from Samsung’s response to Open Standard’s proposed OUSD stablecoin consortium earlier this month. According to South Korean newspaper Chosun, Samsung said it had not held formal consultations with Open Standard and did not know what role it was expected to play after being listed as a founding consortium member. Dunamu, Shinhan Bank and K-Bank also told the newspaper they were still reviewing the proposal and had not approved participation.

Cloud growth has supported Samsung SDS results

Samsung SDS disclosed alongside the conference call that second-quarter revenue increased 5.9% year over year to 3.7178 trillion won, while operating profit rose 0.7% to 231.8 billion won. Net profit climbed 4.6% to 184.1 billion won.

IT services revenue reached 1.7625 trillion won, up 5% from a year earlier.

Cloud operations remained the fastest-growing segment. Revenue from the cloud business increased 17% to 779.4 billion won, while external cloud business revenue jumped 75% year over year.

According to Samsung SDS, cloud service provider revenue grew 24% as demand for Samsung Cloud Platform increased and GPU-as-a-Service deployments expanded across public-sector and enterprise customers. Cloud management services revenue also rose 17%, supported by AI transformation projects in the financial sector and enterprise resource planning deployments within South Korea’s shipbuilding industry.

AI infrastructure expansion will also support blockchain services

Alongside its blockchain plans, Samsung SDS said it continues expanding AI infrastructure and enterprise AI offerings.

The company said it was recently selected as a core operator under South Korea’s government-backed GPU infrastructure program and launched an NPU-as-a-Service product based on FuriosaAI’s Renegade neural processing chip. It has also secured AI-related projects with Woori Bank and the Export-Import Bank of Korea while maintaining partnerships with OpenAI, Anthropic and Google Cloud for generative AI services.

Samsung SDS currently operates about 110 megawatts of AI infrastructure and plans to expand capacity to 230 megawatts by 2029. According to the company, that figure is expected to exceed 800 megawatts by 2031 when design, construction and operational projects are included.

The infrastructure buildout accompanies Samsung SDS’s strategy of pairing its cloud and AI capabilities with Dunamu’s blockchain platform as the companies continue discussions around stablecoin infrastructure, digital asset payment systems and virtual asset financial technology services.

The Bank of Korea has successfully completed live cross-border payment tests using tokenized central bank reserves under the Bank for International Settlements-led Project Agora, processing transactions across six currencies and multiple payment scenarios.

According to the Bank of Korea, the central bank participated in the latest round of Project Agora real transaction testing alongside 27 other central banks and private financial institutions, confirming that the platform’s core functions and operating processes worked reliably in an environment designed to mirror real-world payment operations.

The exercise covered the Korean won, U.S. dollar, euro, British pound, Swiss franc and Japanese yen. South Korea’s participating commercial banks included KB Kookmin Bank, NongHyup Bank, Shinhan Bank, Woori Bank and Hana Bank.

Participating institutions processed transactions worth about 800,000 Swiss francs across 17 payment scenarios. 

The Bank of Korea said the tests successfully handled several cross-border payment use cases, including single- and dual-currency settlements between companies and banks, payment-versus-payment foreign exchange settlements and fund transfers within the same financial group.

Project Agora has linked tokenized reserves with cross-border payments

For its domestic test, the Bank of Korea worked with NongHyup Bank and Shinhan Bank to transfer 20 million won between the two lenders using tokenized reserve funds. According to the central bank, it received payment instructions from both banks before issuing, transferring, and redeeming tokenized reserves on the Project Agora platform.

The process also included a manual connection between Project Hangang, the Bank of Korea’s wholesale central bank digital currency platform, and the central bank’s existing financial network to validate interoperability during the transaction.

Separately, KB Kookmin Bank became the first South Korean commercial bank to complete a deposit token payment test with an overseas lender after conducting a yen-based settlement trial with Japan’s MUFG Bank. The bank said the results would support its participation in future phases of Project Agora.

The Bank of Korea said additional live transaction tests would follow as the project expands to cover payment types and operational scenarios that were not included in the latest exercise.

Project Hangang has supported South Korea’s digital payment plans

The latest cross-border testing builds on South Korea’s efforts to extend Project Hangang beyond institutional pilots and into commercial payment infrastructure.

As previously reported, the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Korea Internet & Security Agency launched a 9.6 billion won program earlier this month to connect Project Hangang with the country’s existing payment network. The initiative is led by the Korea Financial Telecommunications and Clearings Institute and includes nine commercial banks, payment gateway providers and large merchants testing deposit token payments for everyday retail transactions.

Instead of replacing existing payment terminals, the project allows banks to issue deposit token wallets while merchants continue using current point-of-sale systems. Government agencies also plan to test deposit tokens for public-sector payments before integrating the technology with South Korea’s digital public finance platform.

The Bank of Korea has consistently distinguished deposit tokens from stablecoins. Deposit tokens represent commercial bank deposits issued through a wholesale CBDC framework operated by the central bank, while stablecoins are separate digital assets backed by reserve assets under their own regulatory model.

Bank of Korea has continued to prioritize CBDCs alongside Project Agora

The successful testing also follows Governor Shin Hyun-song’s digital finance agenda announced after he took office in April.

In his inaugural speech, Shin said the Bank of Korea would continue expanding Project Hangang while participating in international initiatives such as Project Agora to strengthen cross-border payment infrastructure and support the Korean won in digital finance.

Although lawmakers have continued drafting stablecoin legislation under the proposed Digital Asset Basic Act, Shin’s speech focused on wholesale CBDCs and tokenized bank deposits rather than privately issued stablecoins.

His earlier work at the Bank for International Settlements argued that multiple privately issued stablecoins could fragment payment systems, though later reports indicated he had become more open to stablecoins operating alongside CBDCs under an appropriate framework.

South Korea has advanced stablecoin legislation separately

While the central bank continues testing tokenized reserves and deposit tokens, lawmakers and financial regulators have been developing a separate legal framework for stablecoins.

The Financial Services Commission recently told the National Assembly that it intends to consolidate ten pending digital asset proposals into a single Digital Asset Basic Act covering stablecoin issuance, exchanges, disclosures, governance and operational resilience. The regulator has not published a final draft or announced a submission date.

Separately, a policy report published by Hashed Open Research and the Solana Policy Institute recommended introducing interim licensing guidance for won-backed stablecoins before the full legislation is completed. Participants at the June symposium cited in the report argued that temporary rules could help regulated businesses prepare for stablecoin issuance and payment services while lawmakers continue negotiating the final framework.

The Bank of Korea has maintained that banks should play a leading role in any future stablecoin model because of monetary policy, foreign exchange and financial stability considerations. Ownership rules for stablecoin issuers, however, remain under discussion, with lawmakers and regulators continuing consultations before the proposed legislation moves forward.