Issuance
Industry promotion and crypto special zones
A Korean crypto valley built on negative-list regulation and tax incentives.
Seoul Crypto Institute
Korea's Leapto a GlobalCrypto Hub
SCI is the intellectual and practical center of gravity for Korea's emergence as a leading jurisdiction in digital assets and the financial order to come.
We are launching not as another think tank, but as an action tank driving the crypto transformation of Korean finance.
01Why Now
A turning point in the narrative of assets and finance
We stand at the moment when the way value is created and distributed is being rewritten.
- 01
The redefinition of assets
From land in the agricultural revolution, to equities in the industrial revolution, to intellectual property in the information revolution — digital protocols are now the medium through which value is created and distributed.
- 02
A crypto order re-centered on the United States
The second Trump administration has set out to make the United States the crypto capital of the planet, framing crypto as both an instrument of dollar primacy and an engine of financial innovation. The approval of crypto ETFs has opened an institutional highway for capital to flow into digital assets at scale.
- 03
Korea's choice
Will Korea be a follower carried along by this current, or an architect that shapes it?
02Korea Now
A uniquely dynamic market and a Galápagos risk
Potential — a powerful growth engine
- 10M+
- Retail investors, led by digitally native investors in their twenties and thirties.
- 20%
- Of the economically active population.
- KOSDAQexceeded
- Daily trading volume exceeding that of the KOSDAQ, with genuine influence on global digital asset price formation.
Risk — regulatory uncertainty and Galápagos isolation
Yet this liquidity is not connected to the world.
An isolated currency
Limited international convertibility of the won confines Korea to a local market.
Passive policy and opaque rules
Shadow regulation — informal administrative guidance — combined with hesitant policymaking has driven a digital exodus of innovative firms.
The Galápagos effect
The kimchi premium: a market that overheats internally while remaining cut off from global liquidity.
03Vision
Korea as the G2 Crypto Hub
Beyond physical territory: a trusted regulatory platform that connects global capital and projects to Seoul.
G1United States
Trading & Custody
A hub centered on trading and custody, anchored in dollar primacy.
G2Korea
Issuance & Innovation
A hub for issuance and innovation, built on dynamic technology and adaptive regulation.
The core strategy is differentiation, not imitation.
Issuance Hub
Where builders begin
Make Korea where the world's crypto builders begin — crypto special zones, legal personality for protocols, and tokenization of all assets.
Liquidity & Transformation
Claiming the future of finance
A won stablecoin and the crypto transformation of financial institutions and corporates.
Global Connection
Seoul as the meeting point
A jurisdiction-neutral regulatory platform connecting the world's capital and innovative projects to Seoul.
04Policy Agenda
What we intend to change
Under three strategic pillars, SCI designs and drives concrete legislative and administrative agendas.
Issuance
Legal personality for protocols
Research on a protocol LLC framework allowing DAOs and network organizations to contract and raise capital lawfully.
Issuance
Tokenization of all assets (RWA)
Legal and regulatory groundwork for on-chain issuance and trading of K-content, real estate, IP, currency, equities and more.
Liquidity
A won stablecoin (Digital KRW)
A Digital KRW fully backed by bank deposits, laying the groundwork for internationalization of the won and for DeFi sovereignty.
Liquidity
DAPB — Digital Asset Prime Brokerage
Allowing securities firms and banks to act as prime brokers, offering custody, lending and execution to institutions in one place.
Liquidity
Bringing market making into the open
A licensing regime for legitimate liquidity providers, clearly distinguished from market manipulation.
Liquidity
Spot ETFs and indices
Index products and ETFs extending beyond bitcoin to a wider range of innovative assets.
Liquidity
Crypto transformation of financial institutions
A regulatory foundation for Korean financial institutions to enter crypto markets and expand into global crypto finance.
Liquidity
Crypto transformation of corporates
A practical roadmap for Korean companies to execute their own crypto transformation.
Global
A jurisdiction-neutral crypto platform
A legal framework that channels global liquidity into Korea through domestic depth, accommodative rules and special zones.
Global
Global firms entering Korea
A clear regulatory environment that draws global crypto firms and services into the Korean market.
Global
Alignment with international standards
Continuous review of alignment with international standards through former regulators and global networks.
Spotlight
Omnibus Custody Accounts
ICSA — a technical key to unlocking a closed won
- Problem
- Domestic firms and foreign investors face real difficulty opening local accounts and repatriating investment proceeds — a structural barrier to global capital inflows.
- Solution
- Allow indirect foreign access through omnibus accounts held in the name of a global custodian.
- Effect
- Global crypto capital can tap Korean market liquidity while remaining ring-fenced from the domestic real economy, drawing international funds into Korea.
05How We Work
A hybrid action tank: theory, practice and policy in one place
SCI is not simply a research institute. It is a coalition built to execute.
Core Values
Practicality
실천성
A coalition that goes beyond research to create change.
Expertise
전문성
A hybrid body of experts from academia, the legal profession, industry and former regulators abroad.
Pioneering
선구자 정신
Opening a new path — regulation without borders — instead of prohibition and control.
Three Councils
Research Council
Academia · Legal profession
- Rigorous legal analysis
- Drafting of legislative proposals
Industry Council
Industry
- Domestic and global exchanges, financial institutions, IT and Web3 companies
- Identifying obstacles on the ground and running proof-of-concept projects
Global Advisory Council
International
- Former senior regulators, global project foundations, overseas VCs, industry associations and think tanks
- Reviewing alignment with international standards and connecting Korea to global networks
Framework
Within Korea's distinctive regulatory environment, SCI is building a practical framework for optimal legislative and administrative reform.
Creating the conditions for better crypto and financial regulation
- Continuous monitoring of, and feedback on, executive-branch crypto and financial policy
- Proposing crypto and financial policy models aligned with Korea's economic growth
- Establishing regular channels among government, the National Assembly, industry and academia
Cross-border crypto regulation grounded in Korean jurisdiction
- Research on the industrial effects of cross-border crypto regulation
- Research on crypto special zone models and crypto investment market structure
- A long-term roadmap for administrative and legislative reform
06Roadmap
A three-phase strategy to make the vision real
Institutions are built on schedules, not declarations.
Phase 1 · ~18 months
Laying the foundation
- Founding of SCI and public release of the Crypto Hub Vision Paper 1.0
- Legislative push for digital asset hub and special zone laws
- Opening channels of communication with government
Phase 2 · 1–3 years
Institutional breakthrough
- Launch of an ICSA (omnibus crypto account) regulatory sandbox pilot — global custodians with Korean banks
- Hosting the Seoul Global Digital Asset Summit
Phase 3 · 3–5 years
Completing the hub
- Direct access for foreign institutional investors — full implementation of ICSA
- Becoming Asia's leading market for new asset issuance
07People
SCI Research Fellows
Experts from academia, law, finance, industry and media, brought together as a single coalition built to execute.
Listed in Korean alphabetical order
08Insights
Research and publications
SCI's research and policy proposals are published as open documents.
- White PaperComing soon
Crypto Hub Vision Paper 1.0
SCI's first public document, setting out the strategy and legislative agenda for Korea's emergence as a G2 crypto hub.
- Policy BriefIn preparation
Introducing Omnibus Custody Accounts (ICSA)
On the structure of indirect foreign access through custodian-held omnibus accounts, and the path to implementation.
- ResearchIn preparation
Legal personality for protocols (Protocol LLC)
Examining models of legal personality that allow DAOs and network organizations to contract and raise capital lawfully.
A crypto G2 Korea, embracing the world through crypto
We will work to ensure that prohibition, control and opaque shadow regulation no longer stand in the way of innovation.
Carrying a new banner — regulation without borders — SCI will clear the path for the world's innovators and capital to gather in Seoul.
Until the day Korea beats at the heart of the global digital economy, SCI will lead from the front and give it everything we have.
09Join SCI
We are looking for people to design this with us
Policy & research
Proposals for joint research and policy dialogue with government, the National Assembly and academia.
Industry participation
Industry Council membership and proof-of-concept enquiries from exchanges, financial institutions and IT/Web3 companies.
Media
Interviews, contributed articles and requests for materials.
Contact channels are being set up. Details will be published here as soon as they are available.