South Korea’s Financial Services Commission is reviewing whether to allow crypto market making, according to comments made Monday by Yoo Young-joon, the agency’s director general for digital finance policy.
Yoo said the FSC will examine whether market making and similar systems are needed to make digital asset markets more efficient and stable. He made the remarks at The Bridge Summit 2026 in Seoul, according to Korean crypto outlet Digital Asset.
Market makers place buy and sell orders to help traders enter and exit positions without sharp price swings. Under South Korea’s Virtual Asset User Protection Act, however, there is no exemption for market making. Digital Asset reported that the practice therefore falls within the law’s ban on unfair trading, including price manipulation.
Exchange functions could shift to public oversight
Yoo also discussed several items being reviewed under the proposed Digital Asset Basic Act, the bill that would make up the second phase of the country’s crypto legislation.
He said it may be time for core exchange functions to move from self-regulation to public oversight. The functions he named included order matching, listings, and surveillance for abnormal trades.
As an example, Yoo referred to the recent listing of a yen stablecoin, saying there had been criticism that users lost money during the price spike and that calls for rules were growing.
Upbit started trading JPYC on Sept. 17. The stablecoin is designed to be worth one Japanese yen. At first, the exchange accepted deposits only through Ethereum, which carried about 6.9% of the token’s supply.
After trading opened that evening, JPYC reached an intraday high of 37.60 won, while one yen was worth about 8.85 won at the time. Upbit later added deposits on the Kaia and Polygon networks the same evening. Those networks held more of the supply, and the price later returned to around one yen.
Data from Upbit released on Sept. 27 by Park Min-gyu, a Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker on the National Assembly’s Political Affairs Committee, showed that 21,219 investors bought JPYC at prices 10% or more above the won-yen rate between Sept. 17 and Sept. 21. Their total spending came to about 259.9 billion won.
What the next crypto bill may include
Yoo said rules for major shareholders and executives at crypto firms could also become stricter, with requirements scaled to a company’s size and business.
He added that the bill could move crypto businesses away from the current filing-based system and toward licensing and registration. He also said he expected the law to allow domestic token issuance with disclosure requirements and to cover won-pegged stablecoins.