South Korea takes AI as the core direction of economic development in the second half of the year and accelerates CBDC and treasury bond tokenization pilots

Comparatively, Korea's Ministry of Planning and Finance stated that it will continue to promote the development of the blockchain and digital asset economy in the second half of 2026, focusing on promoting legislation on the Basic Law on Digital Assets, promoting pilot treasury bond tokenization projects linked to institutional CBDCs, and studying the interoperability of CBDCs with other blockchain networks.

In addition, the South Korean government also plans to establish a legal framework for cross-border stablecoin transactions, push for amendments to the Capital Markets Act, provide a legal basis for the launch of Korea's first batch of spot crypto ETFs, and explore the use of blockchain to manage and trade global voluntary carbon market (GVCM) carbon credits.

Meanwhile, the South Korean government has made AI the core direction of economic development in the second half of the year, listed physical AI, AI data centers, and semiconductors as the top three mega projects. It plans to invest about 800 trillion won to build a new semiconductor production base, and double memory chip production capacity within the next five years.