Odaily News , the Bank of Korea (BOK) recently said it will "actively participate" in the process of stablecoin regulation legislation to prevent it from posing a potential threat to monetary policy and financial stability. The central bank pointed out in a payment system report that stablecoins have inherent characteristics as payment tools. If their scope of use is expanded, it may weaken the effectiveness of monetary policy and transmit crypto market risks to the traditional financial system. South Korea is advancing the second phase of its crypto legislation, which will focus on requirements such as stablecoin regulation, classification of crypto service providers, and token transparency. Legislation for this phase is expected to be drafted in the second half of this year as a supplement to the first round of crypto regulations that came into effect in July 2024. The central bank also revealed that as of December 2024, South Korea had approximately 18.25 million crypto investors, accounting for more than 35% of the total population. The average daily trading volume of the top five local exchanges reached US$12.1 billion. In addition, the Bank of Korea is also testing central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), and plans to conduct a second phase of trials in October to explore the feasibility of user-to-user transfer scenarios.