| KOREA SIGNAL | by Holo Hive |
Ruling-party split, four deferral bills, 50K-signature petitions — and the Deputy PM holds January 1, 2027.
Korea's 22% crypto capital gains tax on annual gains above ₩2.5M is scheduled to take effect January 1, 2027. This week it dominated every layer of the market. Two Democratic Party lawmakers publicly broke ranks to call for deferral — Rep. Min Byoung-dug on September 22, citing missing CARF data exchange, no loss carry-forward provision, and undefined acquisition-cost rules; and Rep. Park Min-gyu on September 23. On the same day, PPP Rep. Kim Jae-seop filed a bill to defer three years to January 2030. National Assembly petitions for abolition and for a two-year deferral each passed 50,000 signatures, formally placing both on the Assembly's agenda.
A Tiger Research survey of 2,423 Korean investors published September 22 put the numbers in context: 73.7% oppose the tax as planned; 82.9% oppose the current plan or want another delay; 69.7% expect to cut back or stop investing if it passes. Tiger's model estimates Korean exchange annual volume falling roughly 30% (from ₩860T to ₩602T) and combined exchange revenue falling roughly 29.5%.
On September 28 the Finance and Economy Planning Committee reviewed two PPP deferral bills in full session. The same day, Deputy PM and Finance Minister Lee Hyung-il confirmed the tax takes effect January 1, 2027 as legislated, and that the National Tax Service's implementing notice will follow quickly. Real deliberation moves to the tax subcommittee in November, after the October audit. That is when the outcome will be decided.
Digital Asset Basic Act misses September. November subcommittee is the new target. FSC previews licensing, public listing oversight, and legal market-making.
The Digital Asset Basic Act government bill was not submitted in September. The draft remains in final coordination with the Presidential Office, stalled behind a vacant policy-chief post. The first public hearing, widely expected September 30, did not happen. The FSC says there is "no intent to delay" — the draft will be reviewed alongside lawmakers' bills at the November bill subcommittee. Year-end passage is now uncertain.
Structures still under active discussion: stablecoin issuers as consortia in which banks hold 50% plus one share; exchange major shareholders capped at 20%, with a possible 34% tier and roughly a three-year grace period. No threshold is final. The cap bears directly on Naver Financial's planned stake in Dunamu, Mirae Asset's 97% position in Korbit, and Binance's stake in GOPAX. The Korea Fair Trade Commission has made 13 separate requests for additional data on the Naver–Dunamu merger since the November 2025 filing, citing competition concerns across roughly 10 related markets. The shareholder meetings are November 19; the swap is scheduled December 31.
The FSC's Director-General for Digital Finance Policy used a KBW-week stage to preview what the phase-two law will contain: a review of allowing market-making (currently effectively banned under the User Protection Act); exchange order matching, listing and surveillance potentially moving from self-regulation to public oversight; governance rules scaled to firm size; conflict-of-interest controls; and a shift from registration to licensing. The JPYC episode — 21,219 investors buying ₩259.9B of yen stablecoin at more than 10% above the yen rate in its first five days — is now being cited as evidence that won-stablecoin rules need to address initial float, issuance, redemption, and secondary-market liquidity, not just issuer and reserve requirements.
BTC opens at $86,600, dips to $83K on macro pressure, recovers to ~$84,500. Kimchi premium turns negative in a fear-and-greed reading of 78.
BTC opened the week near $86,600 on September 22 and touched approximately $87K on September 23. It drifted toward $84K through the Chuseok holiday and dipped briefly below $83K on September 28 as US-Iran talks stalled and oil rose — before recovering to around $84,500. Macro pressure was cited consistently: the US 30-year yield broke 5.5% (reportedly for the first time since 2004), Brent above $100, and markets pricing a possible further Fed hike. US spot BTC ETF flows remained strong at approximately $2.4B on the week.
The kimchi premium turned negative despite a Fear and Greed Index reading of 78 (extreme greed) on September 22. BTC traded at discounts of -0.33% to -0.53% on Korean exchanges versus Binance across September 25–28; USDT also traded at a discount. The reversal from early September's +1.55% reading while global greed remains elevated is the week's sharpest signal: Korean retail is not keeping pace with the global rally. The dominant community framing was a "strange bull market" — BTC strong, but no TGEs, airdrops, narratives or new users driving domestic engagement. Recurring advice across channels was spot over leverage.
65% of Korean brokerages now have permanent digital-asset units. KB Securities–Securitize–Optimism MOU. Kakao Pay–Fireblocks MOU. Circle hiring in Seoul.
Korean TradFi kept building this week regardless of the regulatory delay. KB Securities signed an MOU with Securitize and the Optimism Foundation for institutional tokenized products on OP Mainnet, starting with tokenized money-market funds. Shinhan Investment Securities and Lotte Future Strategy Research Institute signed a three-year MOU on tokenized securities backed by Lotte content and IP. DB Securities CEO said at Ethereum Korea One: Genesis on September 28 that DB will take its STO and RWA business from the domestic market into global Ethereum-based capital markets. Kakao Pay and Kakao Bank signed an MOU with Fireblocks on digital-asset infrastructure and stablecoin distribution suited to Korean regulation.
Across the sector, 11 of 17 Korean brokerages (65%) now have permanent digital-asset units. Circle posted a Senior Director, Ecosystem Growth, South Korea role on September 28. AWS Korea posted a capital-markets tokenization specialist role. An FSS senior investigator, speaking at a National Assembly STO/RWA forum, called for common cross-system standards — noting that settlement delays and network fragmentation are increasing because each firm is building its own infrastructure. The regulatory calendar has slipped, but the institutional build is running ahead of the rules.
Bitget hack: ~$351.6M taken, North Korea suspected. Fake GIWA mainnet drains ~766 ETH ($2M). FSC refers four unfair-trading cases.
Bitget detected unauthorised transfers on September 24 (UTC). The exchange confirmed approximately $351.6M taken from hot and warm wallets through a compromised backend approval system, suspects North Korea, and stated its user protection fund (over $464M) covers the loss. Bithumb and Upbit both issued withdrawal-caution notices for transfers to Bitget on September 25. Withdrawals from Bitget resumed in phases from September 28.
On September 27 a launchpad was deceived by someone posing as an Upbit developer promoting a fake "GIWA mainnet" using GIWA's chain ID (9134). Approximately 766 ETH (~$2M) was bridged in and drained. GIWA — Upbit's Ethereum L2 — confirmed its real mainnet has not launched. The launchpad announced 40% compensation. It is the second Upbit-adjacent trust incident in two weeks, after the JPYC dislocation.
At its September 23 meeting the FSC voted to refer four virtual-asset unfair-trading cases, including three using API bots for ultra-short-term manipulation and one where an issuing foundation faked trading volume to obtain and then maintain a mid-tier exchange listing. Clean disclosure, organic volume, and verifiable listing processes are becoming reputational necessities in the Korean market.
KBW 2026 opens today. Upbit Institutional Summit September 29. Main conference September 30 – October 1. Fewer side parties, more substantive events than last year.
Korea Blockchain Week 2026 runs September 29 – October 1 at Walkerhill Hotels and Resorts, Seoul. The invite-only Upbit Institutional Summit (co-hosted with FactBlock) opens today, with Dunamu CEO Oh Kyoung-suk, Tom Lee, Arthur Hayes, Joseph Lubin, Jeff Yan, Bo Hines, Monica Long, and Brian Quintenz among the speakers. Pre-KBW events on September 28 included the Bridge Summit (lawmakers and FSC on stage), EastPoint: Seoul (Hashed and Bloomingbit), and Ethereum Korea One: Genesis (DB Securities). Side events across the KBW window include Ondo with Mirae Asset and Hanwha, CODED@KBW with Google Cloud, Bithumb and Kakao Pay, and the RealFi × Asia Stablecoin Conference. Unlike last year, virtually every sponsor is already post-TGE. The community mood is measured — fewer parties, more substantive programming, and an awareness that Korean retail firepower has shrunk versus the prior cycle.
| Token | Exchange | Date |
|---|---|---|
| CASHCAT Cash Cat |
 KRW, BTC, USDT
|
Sep 28 17:00 KST |
| Q Quack AI |
 KRW
|
Sep 28 16:00 KST |
| PYUSD PayPal USD |
KRW
|
Sep 28 16:00 KST |
PYUSD previously listed on Upbit (Sep 17); Bithumb added its own KRW market on Sep 28. Light listing week — attention was on KBW, the tax fight, and security events.
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