South Korea moves to open crypto trading to companies this year

South Korea’s Financial Services Commission is making corporate access to crypto one of its main policy tasks this year, a move that could reshape a market long dominated by retail traders and set the stage for the next round of digital-asset rules.

Shim Won-tae, who works in the FSC’s virtual-asset division under the Digital Finance Policy Bureau, said corporate participation is a priority during a judicial training session at the Seoul Southern District Court on June 15, Herald Business reported on June 16. The timing matters. Regulators want to settle the market structure first before moving deeper into stablecoins and the rules that will govern virtual-asset service providers.

South Korea’s crypto market has been heavily skewed toward individual investors since anti-speculation steps introduced in 2017 and the real-name deposit and withdrawal account system that followed in 2018. Companies have never fully regained practical access. Even after the related guidelines expired, banks have remained cautious about opening real-name accounts for corporate users, which has kept won-based exchange trading for businesses effectively out of reach.

That retail-heavy setup has also helped fuel South Korea’s unusual altcoin bias. According to the report, Bitcoin and Ether account for roughly 70% of trading in global markets, but only about 40% in South Korea. When large institutions are locked out, smaller caps and faster-moving tokens tend to fill the gap. That is the market the FSC now wants to rebalance.

The rollout is expected to happen in stages. First, companies would be allowed to trade for cash-conversion purposes. Later comes investment and treasury activity, and only after that broader access for general corporations. If listed companies are eventually brought in, the authorities plan tighter anti-money laundering checks, conflict-of-interest rules and more scrutiny of why funds are being traded and where they came from. Third-party custody and management firms are also under review.

Officials are also weighing a statutory industry association to sit alongside DAXA, the current self-regulatory body for major exchanges. DAXA has played a useful role, but regulators clearly see limits in a system built mostly on voluntary enforcement.

The next milestone is December, when virtual-asset transfer operators must begin reporting cross-border transfer data to the Bank of Korea’s foreign-exchange network under a revised Foreign Exchange Transactions Act. That data will flow to tax, customs and financial-intelligence agencies. For traders, the key watchpoint is simple: how quickly the FSC converts this policy push into a workable corporate onboarding framework, and whether banks are willing to support it.