Latest developments: the Korean National Assembly has just officially passed amendments to the Capital Markets Act and the Electronic Securities Act. What does this legislation mean? Simply put—security tokens (STO) finally have a legitimate legal status, no longer experimental in the gray area.

There are quite a few key points in this reform. First, data on the blockchain now has legal standing. The amendments explicitly introduce the concept of "distributed ledger," meaning that on-chain transaction records are no longer virtual digital data; they now possess real legal effect.

Second, issuance rights are loosening. Previously, issuers had to go through brokers as intermediaries; now, qualified issuers can directly issue tokens, breaking the monopoly of brokers. Regulatory authorities have also established a new "issuance account management agency" to support management, aiming to build a complete ecosystem.

More interestingly, fragmented investment products like artworks and copyrights are now included within the regulatory framework. Investment contract securities are now under the jurisdiction of the Capital Markets Act. Additionally, over-the-counter (OTC) trading channels have been opened to specifically address liquidity issues for STOs.

As for the implementation schedule, the main content of the Capital Markets Act took effect immediately after announcement. Investment solicitation regulations will take six months, and OTC trading-related provisions will be fully implemented in one year.

Honestly, this is a significant signal for the entire RWA (Real World Asset) tokenization track. Traditional asset tokenization is no longer just conceptual hype but has been incorporated into the national legal framework. With the development and improvement of Korea’s OTC market, a large number of traditional assets will enter the market in the form of compliant tokens, giving Korea the opportunity to become one of the global hubs for STOs.