Key updates

• Finance Minister Lee Hyoung-il told a National Assembly committee on Sept. 28 he would take responsibility if digital asset tax preparations were inadequate, per CoinNess.
• South Korea is considering lifting its crypto market-making ban to improve liquidity and stability, according to a report cited by OfficiaLCryptoindia.
• Financial Supervisory Service data show the top 10% of users drove over 96% of first-half 2026 crypto volume, per lawmaker Park Hong-bae's office.
• Circle is hiring a senior director of ecosystem growth for South Korea to build partnerships and track regulation, according to Odaily and CoinNess.

South Korea's finance minister says the country will press ahead with taxing crypto gains in January. Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Lee Hyoung-il told a National Assembly committee on Sept. 28 that he would take responsibility if preparations for the digital asset tax were inadequate, according to CoinNess. The remark points to the levy starting on schedule rather than being delayed again.

The tax has been pushed back before, and the minister's willingness to own the outcome is a signal to both officials and investors. For crypto holders in South Korea, one of the world's busiest retail trading markets, the question is no longer whether the tax comes, but how it will be collected and reported. That shifts the work to exchanges, tax authorities and the brokers that hold customer records.

The timing lands in a busy stretch for South Korean crypto policy. Lawmakers and regulators are weighing other changes at the same time, including a possible end to the country's ban on market making in crypto, which a report says is being considered to improve liquidity and stability, according to OfficiaLCryptoindia. Market making is when firms constantly quote buy and sell prices to keep trading smooth.

Tax set for January

Not everyone wants the rules written at home alone. Reform Party lawmaker Lee Jun-seok said South Korea should adopt a framework compatible with major overseas jurisdictions rather than country-only standards, and argued the market needs a proper commodity market and a futures system, according to News1. His point is that global investors and Korean firms compete in the same market, so mismatched rules can push activity offshore.

The market backdrop is soft. At the time of writing, bitcoin traded at $82,985, down 2.13% in 24 hours, and ethereum at $2,651, down 2.39%, according to InvestIn.News market data. Total crypto market value stood at $2.83 trillion, down 4.92%, while the Crypto Fear & Greed Index read 74 of 100, in Greed territory. South Korean equities were also weak, with the KOSPI closing down 2.7% at 6,889.75 on Sept. 28, according to Odaily, as Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix each fell more than 5%.

The tax debate matters because South Korea's crypto market is unusually concentrated. Data from the Financial Supervisory Service, obtained by lawmaker Park Hong-bae's office, show the top 10% of users by trading value accounted for more than 96% of first-half 2026 volume, ranging from 95.6% on Upbit to 99.43% on DigitalX, according to CoinNess. A tax that depends on exchanges reporting customer trades will lean heavily on a small number of large platforms and a small number of large traders.

A concentrated market

Foreign firms are watching the rulebook closely. Stablecoin issuer Circle is building a South Korea market entry strategy and hiring a full-time senior director of ecosystem growth to build partnerships, track regulation and study payment and institutional use cases, according to Odaily. A second report, from CoinNess, says the job posting reviewed on Sept. 28 focuses on stablecoins and the South Korean market. Stablecoins are tokens pegged to a currency such as the dollar.

Domestic finance is moving too. DB Securities plans to expand its digital asset business focused on security tokens and real-world assets, according to Digital Asset, with CEO Kwak Bong-seok telling the Ethereum Korea One: Genesis conference in Seoul on Sept. 28 that digital assets with real backing are the priority. Security tokens are blockchain versions of traditional assets like shares or bonds. A clearer tax and licensing picture would help firms like these decide how much to invest.

Enforcement is part of the same story. Incheon District Prosecutors' Office indicted without detention a police lieutenant in his 40s accused of diverting about 0.033 BTC, worth 5.19 million won at the time, seized from a drug offender in 2024 and cashing it out, according to KBS News. The case is small in money terms but relevant to the tax debate: it shows how hard it can be to track and hold crypto tied to a legal case.

Firms and enforcement

The government is also pushing technology policy in parallel. The deputy prime minister said AI should be treated as basic infrastructure like electricity, citing the Financial Times, and the government picked SK Telecom, KT and Kakao to lead an 'AI for All' plan aimed at giving the country's 51.6 million people free access, according to PANews. Crypto rules will sit alongside that broader digital agenda, not apart from it.

What to watch next is practical. The finance ministry needs systems that let exchanges report gains and let taxpayers file them, and the National Assembly may still amend the rules. Watch whether the market-making ban is lifted and whether lawmakers align the framework with overseas rules. For investors, the near-term issue is not the rate but the paperwork: who reports, what counts as a taxable gain, and when the first bills go out.

Follow the latest Stablecoins updates as they happen on Stablecoins NewsFeeds.

Sources

• CoinNess: South Korea finance minister says he would take responsibility if crypto tax rollout is unprepared (2026-09-28)
• CoinNess: South Korean police officer indicted over misused seized bitcoin (2026-09-28)
• Odaily: South Korea's KOSPI closes down 2.7%, Samsung and SK Hynix fall over 5% (2026-09-28)
• OfficiaLCryptoindia: South Korea weighs lifting crypto market-making ban (2026-09-28)
• Odaily: Circle builds out South Korea push, hiring senior director of ecosystem growth (2026-09-28)
• CoinNess: South Korea's Lee Jun-seok urges globally compatible crypto rules and futures market (2026-09-28)
• CoinNess: Circle hiring South Korea ecosystem growth director to expand stablecoin presence (2026-09-28)
• CoinNess: Top 10% of South Korean crypto traders drive over 96% of volume (2026-09-28)

This article was drafted with AI assistance from the reporting listed above, then checked and edited by our writer.