Jakarta - Swan.my.id - The South Korea crypto market 2030 could move beyond speculative trading as stablecoins, blockchain-based payments, and tokenized real-world assets gain greater attention. These three trends are highlighted in a new report from Tiger Research.
The report, titled Monad’s Outlook for Korea’s Crypto Market in 2030, examines how blockchain infrastructure could become more closely connected with South Korea’s financial system. It also highlights a significant gap between the country’s large crypto trading activity and the relatively early stage of blockchain adoption in other financial applications.
South Korea already has a large base of crypto users. According to a financial authorities survey released in March 2026, 11.13 million accounts were eligible to trade crypto at the end of 2025. That figure represented more than 20% of the country’s population.
1. KRW Stablecoins Could Enter Payment Systems
The first major trend is the potential development of Korean won (KRW)-backed stablecoins.
Tiger Research expects KRW stablecoins could eventually be used for both consumer payments and business-to-business (B2B) transactions. In a potential 2030 scenario, consumers could pay for goods at stores without directly interacting with blockchain technology.
The payment experience could remain similar to today's systems. However, blockchain and stablecoins could operate behind the scenes to handle settlement.
The opportunity could be particularly significant for cross-border B2B payments. South Korea has a trade-to-GDP ratio of around 85%, compared with approximately 25% for the United States, based on OECD data cited in the report.
Because of its high trade exposure, South Korea could potentially benefit from payment infrastructure that reduces intermediaries and speeds up settlement for large transactions.
However, regulatory developments remain important. As of September 2026, discussions surrounding the Digital Asset Basic Act included questions about which entities would be permitted to issue KRW stablecoins.
2. Blockchain Could Operate Behind Existing Payment Systems
The second trend involves blockchain infrastructure becoming part of the back end of payment systems.
Rather than replacing credit cards, banking applications, or existing payment services, blockchain could operate behind the systems that consumers already use.
For example, a salary received through a banking application could potentially be recorded as a token transfer instead of a conventional account transfer. From the user's perspective, the experience might not change significantly.
The major changes would occur in settlement and liquidity management.
Stablecoins and tokenized deposits could potentially allow financial institutions and payment companies to move and manage funds in real time. This could also create opportunities for treasury software to manage prefunded balances, settlement schedules, and liquidity risks.
Traditional batch settlement can require companies to maintain additional capital to cover the period between transactions and final settlement.
Real-time settlement could reduce this buffer requirement. It could also shorten the period in which companies are exposed to foreign-exchange movements or counterparty settlement risks.
3. Tokenized RWA Could Connect Korean Assets With Global Investors
The third trend is the development of tokenized real-world assets, or RWA.
Tiger Research suggests that South Korea's RWA opportunity could extend beyond simply issuing tokens. The broader opportunity could involve distributing tokenized Korean assets to investors in international markets.
One scenario described in the report involves an institutional investor in New York purchasing Korean government bonds denominated in won through a digital wallet.
Achieving such a system would require supporting infrastructure for brokerage, global distribution, subscriptions, redemptions, and real-time balance updates between asset managers and custodians.
South Korea is also developing a framework for tokenized securities. According to the report, domestic tokenized securities are expected to operate through private ledgers managed by licensed intermediaries beginning in February 2027.
Meanwhile, South Korea's Financial Services Commission clarified an offshore pathway in August 2026 that could allow overseas entities to tokenize funds backed by Korean underlying assets and offer them privately to non-residents under certain restrictions.
These developments could become an important part of the country's broader digital asset infrastructure.
Where Does Monad Fit Into the Picture?
Monad is presented in the report as a potential blockchain infrastructure layer for high-frequency settlement.
Monad is an Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible Layer 1 blockchain that launched its mainnet in November 2025. Its network uses parallel execution, allowing multiple transactions to be processed simultaneously.
Tiger Research introduces the concept of a hub chain. Under this model, a central blockchain could connect payment networks, centralized exchanges, and other blockchain networks.
Such infrastructure could potentially support settlement, bridging, treasury management, and liquidity movement without requiring financial institutions to maintain separate pools of capital across multiple blockchain networks.
According to the report, around 10 months after its mainnet launch, Monad had approximately US$1 billion in total value locked (TVL) across decentralized finance applications and had processed more than 750 million transactions.
Its TVL was distributed across areas including lending markets, decentralized exchanges, and stablecoin pools.
However, the report's discussion of Monad in South Korea remains a potential scenario rather than evidence that the blockchain has already become widely integrated into the country's financial sector.
South Korea’s Crypto Market Could Move Beyond Trading
The broader picture presented by Tiger Research suggests that South Korea's crypto industry could gradually expand beyond trading activity.
KRW stablecoins could potentially become part of payment infrastructure. Blockchain could operate behind financial applications to improve settlement. Meanwhile, tokenized RWA could create new channels for Korean assets to reach international investors.
Still, these developments are not guaranteed.
Regulation, infrastructure readiness, institutional adoption, and the ability of financial companies to commercialize blockchain-based services will likely determine how quickly these ideas develop.
Tiger Research also notes that several opportunities discussed in its report remain closer to the pilot stage than fully scaled commercial businesses.
For investors and crypto market participants, the developments provide a broader view of how blockchain adoption could evolve in South Korea through 2030. Instead of focusing only on token prices and trading volumes, future adoption could increasingly involve payments, settlement infrastructure, and tokenized financial assets.
The direction of the market will ultimately depend on how regulators, financial institutions, technology providers, and blockchain networks develop these systems over the coming years.