Korean National Assembly Delays Digital Assets Law

The Political Affairs Committee of the National Assembly of South Korea held the first meeting of a special subcommittee of the new year to consider the Digital Assets Bill. As a result, according to Korean media reports, the decision on the bill was postponed indefinitely due to political disputes over the advisability of adopting the document in isolation from measures to stabilize the financial market of the Republic of Korea. Representatives of the opposition parties said that the discussion of the bill on digital assets is untimely and has the lowest priority on the agenda: compared to amendments to the laws on asset securitization, credit unions, and the capital market and financial investments. A consensus was reached between the ruling and opposition parties last year on a law on digital assets.. Now, however, opponents of the ruling party argue that the law on digital assets does not meet national goals, focuses on particulars, and not on correcting the failures of the cryptocurrency market. In December 2022, the South Korean Ministry of Science and Information Technology (MSIT) published a strategy for the development of Web3 and the Metaverse, as well as ethical guidelines for industry operators.