South Korea moves to classify stablecoins as payment instruments under forex law

Amendments to the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act would put dollar-pegged tokens under the same framework as banknotes South Korea is rewriting its foreign exchange rulebook to make room for stablecoins. Lawmakers are amending the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act (FETA) so that stablecoins are formally treated as a recognized “means of payment.” That puts dollar-pegged tokens in the same legal category as government-issued notes and banknotes. For a country that has spent years watching these tokens move freely across its borders, the change is meant to close a loophole that has been getting harder to ignore.