PANews reported on May 20 that according to Cointelegraph, South Korean presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung recently proposed a plan to issue a stablecoin pegged to the Korean won, aiming to curb capital outflows and strengthen financial sovereignty. Lee Jae-myung pointed out at a policy discussion meeting that current Korean law prohibits the issuance of local stablecoins, causing domestic exchanges to rely on USDT, USDC and other US dollar stablecoins. In the first quarter of 2025, the country's cryptocurrency exchanges recorded an outflow of 56.8 trillion won (about 40.8 billion US dollars), of which nearly half were related to foreign stablecoins.

The proposal is part of its digital asset strategy, which also includes promoting the legalization of spot cryptocurrency ETFs and allowing institutions such as the National Pension Fund to invest in cryptocurrencies after meeting price stability conditions. To support implementation, he proposed the establishment of a comprehensive monitoring system for government supervision and lower transaction fees. However, Shin Bo-sung, a researcher at the Korea Capital Market Research Institute, warned that stablecoins could expand the money supply and transfer control of monetary policy to private issuers. On May 13, the Democratic Party of Korea established a "Digital Asset Committee" and plans to launch the "Basic Law on Digital Assets", requiring stablecoin issuers to hold at least 500 billion won in reserves and be approved by the Financial Services Commission. At present, there are several crypto-asset-related committees in South Korea led by financial regulators.