South Korea has advanced a three-part digital-finance program covering crypto accounts for about 3,500 companies, legal recognition for tokenized securities, and deposit-token trials involving nine banks.

FACTBLOCK CEO and Korea Blockchain Week organizer Andrew Park said South Korea’s crypto market is moving away from its long reliance on retail trading as financial institutions focus on custody, tokenization, stablecoins, settlement systems and regulatory compliance.

The change covers three connected areas of financial activity. Corporate investors are preparing to enter the crypto market under Financial Services Commission rules, securities firms are building systems for tokenized assets, and the Bank of Korea is testing digital bank deposits that can carry programmable payment conditions.

South Korea prepares crypto accounts for 3,500 companies

Under a roadmap released by the Financial Services Commission in February 2025, South Korea planned to let about 2,500 listed companies and approximately 1,000 corporations registered as professional investors open real-name bank accounts linked to crypto exchanges.

Financial companies were excluded from the group, while access for the eligible corporations was designed as a controlled pilot rather than unrestricted participation.

Since 2017, Korean companies have been unable to trade virtual assets through local exchanges because banks have not provided the required real-name accounts. Although the restriction was not written as a direct statutory ban, the account rules effectively kept corporate money out of the market.

The FSC first opened limited account access to nonprofit organizations, universities, law-enforcement agencies, and crypto exchanges. Eligible institutions could sell virtual assets received through donations, criminal seizures, or exchange fees, but the first stage did not allow general investment.

Listed companies and registered professional investors formed the second group in the FSC’s roadmap because the regulator considered them better equipped to assess investment risk. Officials also cited corporate demand for blockchain businesses and digital-asset investments when choosing the pilot participants.

Subsequent guidelines considered an annual investment ceiling equal to 5% of a company’s equity capital, according to Korean media reports. Eligible purchases would be limited to the 20 largest cryptocurrencies by market value across South Korea’s five major exchanges, although regulators were still considering whether dollar-backed stablecoins such as Tether’s USDT should qualify.

Corporate access also creates demand for regulated custody. On Aug. 18, BitGo Korea secured VASP registration from the Korea Financial Intelligence Unit, allowing the company to develop crypto custody and transfer services for institutions and businesses.

Hana Financial Group owns 25% of BitGo Korea, while SK Telecom holds 10%. BitGo has not disclosed a service launch date, supported assets, custody fees, or named clients.

Tokenized securities enter South Korean law

Alongside corporate crypto access, South Korea has established a legal route for issuing and trading tokenized securities.

The National Assembly passed amendments to the Electronic Securities Act and Capital Markets Act on Jan. 15, 2026. The measures were promulgated on Feb. 3 and are scheduled to take effect on Feb. 4, 2027, according to a legal summary from Kim & Chang.

Under the amended Electronic Securities Act, distributed ledgers can serve as legally recognized records for securities issuance. Issuers must follow registration procedures involving the Korea Securities Depository, rather than treating blockchain records as a separate and unregulated ownership system.

Changes to the Capital Markets Act also bring investment-contract securities and fractional investment products into the regulated market. Licensed intermediaries will be able to handle distribution, while over-the-counter trading will operate under rules prepared by financial authorities.

Infrastructure work has proceeded before the law takes effect. As crypto.news reported in May, Samsung SDS won a contract to turn the Korea Securities Depository’s test system into a production-ready token-securities platform.

KSD expects the system to connect distributed-ledger data with its existing electronic securities accounts. The planned functions include issuance records, circulation checks, rights management and real-time monitoring of token volumes, with completion expected by February 2027.

In August, Shinhan Bank and Plume also began an offshore proof of concept involving a won-denominated tokenized fund backed by ultra-short-term bonds. The test excludes Korean residents and will not issue or distribute tokens, but the companies are examining whitelist controls, know-your-customer checks, anti-money-laundering procedures, and onchain operations before the domestic law begins.

For U.S. readers, the Korean structure differs in administration but follows the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s position that putting a financial instrument on a blockchain does not remove it from securities law. In a January 2026 staff statement, the SEC divided tokenized securities into issuer-backed and third-party models and said market participants may still need registrations, proposals or regulatory relief.

SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce previously said “tokenized securities are still securities,” adding that distributors, buyers and trading platforms must consider federal disclosure and market rules. South Korea’s framework similarly places tokenized instruments inside its existing securities system, with KSD handling formal registration.

Project Hangang expands deposit-token testing

The Bank of Korea has developed a separate payment layer through Project Hangang, which combines wholesale central-bank money with deposit tokens issued by commercial banks.

Deposit tokens are digital versions of bank deposits rather than cryptocurrencies issued directly by the central bank to consumers. Participating banks issue the tokens to customers, while tokenized central-bank money settles transfers between the banks.

During Phase I, which began in April 2025, about 80,000 of the 100,000 invited users opened wallets. Participants completed approximately 118,000 payment transactions, although the total value remained below 700 million won.

In March 2026, the Bank of Korea launched Phase II with nine banks, adding BNK Kyongnam Bank and iM Bank to KB Kookmin, Shinhan, Woori, Hana, NH Nonghyup, IBK Industrial Bank and BNK Busan Bank.

Phase II includes person-to-person transfers, biometric payment approval, and automatic conversion between ordinary deposits and deposit tokens. The central bank is also extending digital vouchers and testing programmable controls on government spending.

Electric-vehicle charging infrastructure grants and public-sector operating expenses are among the first public-payment uses. Payment conditions can restrict which recipient spends the funds, where the money is accepted, and how long it remains available, according to the Bank of Korea.

A separate 9.6 billion won, or roughly $6.9 million, deposit-token payment program began in July under the Korea Internet & Security Agency and the Ministry of Science and ICT. Nine banks, eight payment companies, and two major merchants joined the consortium led by the Korea Financial Telecommunications and Clearings Institute.

The program will connect deposit tokens with existing payment networks, allowing merchants to process transactions without replacing all their terminals. Participating agencies said the test would examine whether the system can lower processing fees for small businesses.

AI agents gain a programmable payment method

Project Hangang’s technical work has also covered payments initiated by AI agents.

LG CNS demonstrated an agentic payment service in January 2026 using deposit tokens on the Bank of Korea’s infrastructure. Under the model, an AI agent can search for a product or service, check user-defined conditions, and complete a payment through a tokenized bank deposit.

The Bank of Korea said it would continue studying deposit tokens as a payment method for AI-agent services and as settlement money for tokenized bonds and shares. Because payment conditions can be written into the system, a transaction can execute only after a specified action or market condition occurs.

At the European Central Bank Forum in July, Bank of Korea Governor Hyun Song Shin said “the big prize is tokenizing government bonds.” Shin described a unified ledger where tokenized bonds, commercial-bank deposit tokens, and wholesale central-bank money could operate on the same platform.

The central bank has also connected Project Hangang with the Bank for International Settlements’ Project Agorá. In 2026, South Korea completed tests linking its digital-currency system with the cross-border platform, including real-value transactions using tokenized central-bank reserves across six currencies.

Strategy’s STRC preferred stock has remained below its $100 stated value at $95.31 despite Bitcoin’s rally to about $77,125, prompting Multicoin Capital co-founder Tushar Jain to argue that its 12% dividend does not adequately cover the risk of another deep drawdown.

Tushar Jain said in an Aug. 22 X thread that STRC had failed to return to its stated value during Bitcoin’s recent rally because its dividend remained too low relative to the losses investors had faced.

“STRC has not repegged despite this monster BTC rally because the dividend is way too low,” Jain wrote.

The Multicoin Capital co-founder said Strategy had marketed STRC as a fixed-income product, yet the security suffered a drawdown of about 30%. According to Jain, investors who accept that degree of downside exposure require a much higher yield as compensation.

STRC closed at $95.31 on Aug. 21, according to Strategy’s website, leaving it 4.69% below its $100 stated amount. The share price has recovered sharply from its June low of $71.25, but the rebound has not restored the level Strategy wants the security to maintain.

Bitcoin, meanwhile, traded near $77,125 on Aug. 22 after reaching an intraday high of $78,763. The cryptocurrency had climbed above Strategy’s average acquisition cost of $75,385, returning the company’s treasury to an unrealized profit at prevailing prices.

Why STRC’s 12% dividend has not restored its price

Strategy currently pays a 12% annualized dividend on STRC’s $100 stated value, split into two monthly payments of $0.50 per share. At the Aug. 21 market price, the $12 annual payout produced an effective yield of about 12.6%.

In its Aug. 2 coverage, crypto.news reported the unchanged rate after STRC ended July at $89.46. The security had spent much of the month well below $100, even after Strategy raised its annualized dividend from 11.5% to 12% for record dates beginning in July.

Strategy’s rate-setting framework allows management to consider STRC’s trading price, competing market yields, credit spreads, Bitcoin’s price and volatility, reserve coverage, capital-market conditions and the company’s complete capital structure. Dividend payments require board approval and are not guaranteed.

Management previously used a more direct framework in which a monthly volume-weighted average price below $95 could lead to a recommended increase of at least 50 basis points. Strategy revised the policy in June, meaning a below-par price no longer produces an automatic increase.

On July 27, the company said management would recommend holding the rate at 12% until STRC recorded sustained trading near $100. Strategy also said it would not issue additional STRC shares below the stated amount, limiting the security’s role in raising fresh capital while it trades at a discount.

Jain argued that raising the rate would create another problem for Strategy because a larger payout would increase its recurring cash needs.

“If Saylor raises the dividend for STRC to get it to repeg, he raises his annual cash burn substantially.”

STRC’s price controls one route to more Bitcoin

Strategy introduced STRC in July 2025 through an initial public offering of more than 28 million shares priced at $90 each. The security began with a 9% annualized dividend, which the company later increased several times as the market price moved below its $100 stated value.

STRC sits above MSTR common stock in Strategy’s capital structure but below the company’s debt. It is perpetual, lacks a fixed maturity date, and does not give holders a contractual right to redeem their shares for $100 on demand.

The company designed the variable dividend to encourage STRC to trade close to its stated value. When the security trades at or above $100, Strategy can sell additional shares without issuing them at a discount and use the proceeds for purposes that may include Bitcoin purchases.

Chief Executive Phong Le connected the two transactions in July, saying Strategy would issue more STRC and buy more Bitcoin after the preferred stock returned to par. The STRC issuance condition makes its market price relevant to the company’s ability to expand its Bitcoin holdings through preferred-share sales.

Jain said failure to restore STRC to $100 would prevent Strategy from buying more Bitcoin through accretive STRC issuance. He also argued that MSTR could trade at a discount similar to a closed-end fund if the company stopped making accretive Bitcoin purchases.

Strategy describes STRC issuance as accretive when the transaction increases the Bitcoin or net Bitcoin attributed to each assumed diluted MSTR share. The company cautions that its Bitcoin-per-share metrics are not measures of shareholder returns, liquidity or conventional investment yield.

Strategy has used buybacks instead of another rate increase

Rather than raising the dividend again in August, Strategy has repurchased STRC shares below $100. The company bought back 288,930 shares for about $25 million during the week ending July 26, paying an average of $86.53 per share.

Further transactions followed as Strategy sold parts of its Bitcoin reserve. Between July 27 and Aug. 2, the company sold 1,638 BTC for $104.7 million, directing $52.4 million to preferred-stock dividends and $52.3 million to STRC repurchases.

During the following week, Strategy sold another 1,690 BTC for $108.6 million and used the entire net amount to buy back about 1.15 million STRC shares. An Aug. 10 report on the transaction showed that the company paid an average of approximately $94.29 per share.

Strategy then raised $333.7 million by selling 3.46 million MSTR shares from Aug. 10 through Aug. 16. Its SEC filing showed that $132.2 million funded the repurchase of about 1.39 million STRC shares, while $52.4 million covered STRC dividends and $149.1 million went into the company’s U.S. dollar reserve.

The transactions increased the reserve to approximately $4.80 billion and kept Strategy’s Bitcoin holdings unchanged at 840,447 BTC for the week. Those coins were acquired for about $63.36 billion, including fees, at an average price of $75,385.

MSTR’s Bitcoin premium faces renewed scrutiny

In the last post of his thread, Jain said the MSTR-to-Bitcoin chart had “fully retraced” and argued that the digital-asset treasury trade had run its course. His statement was an opinion about Strategy’s valuation rather than company guidance or a confirmed market outcome.

MSTR closed at $119.25 on Aug. 21 after rising 6.05% during the session, while Strategy’s website placed its modified net asset value ratio near 1.00. The company warns that its mNAV measure is not the same as net asset value under traditional accounting standards and may not predict the price of its securities.

For U.S. investors, both STRC and MSTR trade on Nasdaq, making the dispute relevant to holders using listed Strategy securities for Bitcoin-related exposure. STRC holders receive cash distributions but do not own a direct claim on a fixed quantity of Bitcoin, while MSTR investors remain exposed to the company’s operating costs, preferred-stock obligations, debt and potential share dilution.

Strategy’s Aug. 17 Form 8-K reported no Bitcoin purchases or sales between Aug. 10 and Aug. 16. The filing left its holdings at 840,447 BTC after two consecutive weeks of sales and disclosed $4.80 billion in U.S. dollar reserves.