South Korea to overhaul state asset law to include digital assets

South Korea is drafting a new state asset law that would formally bring virtual assets under the country’s asset management system, widening an overhaul of a framework built around the 1950 State Property Act. The Ministry of Finance and Economy said at a briefing at the President's Blue House that it intends to establish a National Asset Basic Act covering intellectual property and virtual assets alongside traditional property. The proposed framework would also shift management toward a more specialized approach by asset category and away from a model focused mainly on preservation, sale and basic development, with greater emphasis on generating value from state-held assets. The plan forms part of the ministry’s second-half 2026 economic agenda, which also includes continued work on a central bank digital currency project and the separate Digital Asset Basic Act for South Korea’s private-sector crypto and stablecoin industry. The update adds to South Korea’s broader digital-finance push, which already includes plans for a 2027 pilot program for tokenized government bonds linked to the Bank of Korea’s CBDC infrastructure, studies into tokenizing state-owned real estate, and legal changes due to take effect on Feb. 4, 2027, to recognize blockchain-ledger systems as security registries. No timeline was given for when the new asset law or the Digital Asset Basic Act would be finalized or passed.