Edaily interview: "Institutionalizing a won-denominated stablecoin and its technical requirements"

Jonghyup Kim, CEO of PARAMETA, the Stablecoin Alliance's chair company, spoke in an Edaily interview published on February 9, 2026, about why a won-denominated stablecoin should be institutionalized and what more should be included in the proposed Digital Asset Basic Act (working title), a bill then under discussion in the National Assembly.

The need for a won-denominated stablecoin

Responding to the view that few parties overseas would seek out a won stablecoin even if one were introduced, Kim answered that this was precisely why institutionalization is needed. Kim said a won stablecoin should be introduced "if only to find uses for the won in places where it is not widely used internationally." In other words, he saw stablecoins as a means of widening the range of uses for the won.

As the main area of use, he pointed to business-to-business (B2B) transactions. Examples include remittances to countries that accept the won, participation in local foreign exchange trading, and settlement in which card companies in two countries reconcile overseas payment amounts. He also suggested testing two ideas in a regulatory sandbox (a program that temporarily exempts pilots from certain rules): a means of payment for trading real-world assets (RWA) such as Korean stocks as tokens abroad, and a way for foreigners holding dollar stablecoins to convert them into local currency vouchers and spend them.

Know-your-customer checks and anti-money laundering

Some point out that stablecoins are difficult to manage under the current anti-money laundering (AML) framework because their owners are not visible and they cross borders easily. Kim took the view that this problem can be solved with technology. He explained that because tokens move according to set specifications, know-your-customer (KYC) checks can be required for every transfer, and that verification at the wallet level makes it possible to freeze a wallet linked to a problem. He said it is also technically possible to build a structure that confirms owners and transaction histories, as with bank accounts.

Technical requirements missing from the bill discussions

Kim expressed concern that discussion of the bill was concentrated on the issuing entity and on major shareholder stakes in crypto exchanges. In his view, the technical requirements needed once the framework is in place should be discussed now. As specific tasks, he cited criteria for evaluating the mainnets (underlying blockchains) used by stablecoin businesses, custody security and guidelines on compensation when incidents occur, and the requirements that would apply if KYC checks on users were made mandatory. He added that the Financial Services Commission (FSC), Korea's financial regulator, should take charge of this preparation, and that the Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) should work with it to fill in what is lacking on the technical side. Network evaluation criteria and KYC standards are also topics Kim proposed in his presentation at the New Year seminar on January 30.