Recently, I noticed that the Korean regulators have made another move: they want to exclude stablecoins such as USDT and USDC from the rules governing corporate cryptocurrency investments. At first glance, it sounds a bit odd, but once you dig deeper, the logic behind it is actually quite clear.

The Korean authorities have tied this decision to their foreign exchange transaction law. Under the current legal framework, foreign payment instruments must be processed through designated foreign exchange banks, and stablecoins have not yet been formally recognized as a lawful external payment method within this system. Therefore, regulators believe that including stablecoins in corporate investment guidelines would conflict with the existing legal framework.

What’s interesting is that a legal amendment was submitted as far back as last October, aiming to formally define stablecoins as payment instruments. However, the proposal is still under review in the National Assembly and progress has been slow. Before this bill is passed, regulators apparently seem reluctant to take the risk of writing stablecoins into the official corporate investment guidelines.

But there’s a real-world issue here—some Korean listed companies, especially those involved in overseas trade, actually need assets like USDC for settlement and hedging. Stablecoins have become so popular in global markets because cross-border transfers are fast and costs are low, far outperforming traditional banking channels. At present, Korean companies cannot open digital asset trading accounts through official channels, which limits their ability to access stablecoins directly.

So the current situation is that some companies are already using personal wallets or overseas exchanges to handle stablecoin transactions. This kind of “gray area” approach is also one of the reasons regulators want to clarify the rules as soon as possible.

That said, this doesn’t mean stablecoins can’t be traded at all. Companies can still buy and sell stablecoins through personal wallets or overseas OTC platforms, but they are temporarily excluded from the formal corporate investment framework. This new rule is mainly aimed at regulating those officially approved corporate investment activities that fall under regulatory oversight.

From a regulatory perspective, their cautious attitude is understandable—at the early stage of the market, they don’t want too much confusion. But as the legal amendments advance and market demand grows, it should only be a matter of time before stablecoins are brought into the formal framework. If you’re following these kinds of policy changes, you can check the latest developments on Gate for the relevant assets—regulatory updates like this often influence market sentiment.