Overview
- South Korea’s Finance Ministry, which confirmed the sandbox approval Thursday, set Sejong City for a Q4 2026 trial to replace some government purchase‑card payments with digital tokens.
- Deposit tokens function as digital versions of bank deposits and will be issued by nine commercial banks, including KB Kookmin, Shinhan, Woori and Hana.
- Payments will include preset time windows and allowed merchant categories, creating automatic audit trails and reducing after‑the‑fact checks when spending falls outside normal hours.
- The structure removes card‑network intermediaries, a change officials say could lower fees and speed payouts for small businesses that supply government offices.
- The pilot expands a March test that used tokenized deposits for EV‑charging subsidies and supports a goal to digitize 25% of treasury payments by 2030 alongside work on a Digital Asset Basic Act.