U.S. Federal Digital Asset Bill Nears Final Passage... Catalyst for Advanced STO Regulation in Korea?

Legislative Process Accelerates as U.S. Senate Committee Approves Bill

On-Chain Standardization of Traditional Securities Specified

Korean-Style STO System Needs Further Advancement

As the United States accelerates the legislative process for the Digital Asset Market Structure Clarity Act (CLARITY Act)—the first comprehensive federal framework bill for virtual assets—the legal community is closely watching its potential impact on the ongoing regulatory overhaul of security token offerings (STOs) in Korea. There is also analysis suggesting that Korea's STO system, which passed the National Assembly in January and is set for full implementation next year, needs to be further refined to align with global standards.

According to legal industry sources and foreign media on June 3, the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs approved a revised version of the Digital Asset Market Structure Clarity Act, introduced by Republican Senator Tim Scott, on May 14, with 15 votes in favor and 9 against. The bill, which passed the House of Representatives in July last year, has now cleared a key hurdle toward final enactment within the year.

This bill was created to end the jurisdictional disputes between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) over the legal nature of digital assets. The intent is for the SEC to regulate initial fundraising through investment contracts, while digital commodities such as network tokens traded in secondary markets would be governed primarily by the CFTC, thereby unifying the regulatory framework and reducing market uncertainty. Notably, the bill introduces the concept of a "Mature Blockchain System," specifying that if no single entity holds more than 49% of governance rights and the system is sufficiently decentralized, it would be subject to lighter CFTC regulations.

What Korean financial law experts are focusing on is the bill's section on tokenization of traditional securities (Title V). Article 505 of the Digital Asset Market Structure Clarity Act imposes a comprehensive research obligation on the SEC regarding the regulatory framework for the tokenization of securities.

Hyobong Kim, attorney at Bae, Kim & Lee LLC, explained, "Under the previous incomplete tokenization system, even if tokens were distributed, investors could only receive economic benefits rather than direct ownership of the underlying assets such as money market funds (MMFs). In contrast, the direction required by the U.S. Congress is to establish clear and uniform legal rules within one year, so that when physical assets are tokenized, the transfer of a token results in a complete legal transfer of ownership, just like the transfer of traditional securities."

In Korea as well, amendments to the Capital Markets Act and the Electronic Securities Act passed the National Assembly in January, paving the way for STOs to be officially incorporated into the regulatory framework next year. However, the domestic STO system is being shaped primarily around specific fractional investment assets, and distribution is limited to designated over-the-counter platforms or the new securities market of Korea Exchange. This contrasts with the U.S. approach, which is considering allowing existing standardized securities—such as stocks and bonds—to be migrated onto blockchain and freely traded on-chain, without restricting the underlying assets eligible for tokenization.

An official from a major law firm stated, "The digital asset market is connected globally, so the moment there is regulatory arbitrage, all domestic clients and services could move overseas. Given that our financial authorities have also emphasized 'global regulatory alignment,' if the U.S. establishes a direction for the tokenization of traditional securities, the domestic regulatory landscape and the scope of assets eligible for tokenization will inevitably be directly affected."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.