South Korea plans to allow companies to invest in cryptocurrencies, but dollar-denominated stablecoins may be excluded from the initial list.

According to South Korean media outlet Herald Business, South Korean financial regulators are inclined to exclude USDT and USDC, among other USD stablecoins, from the permitted list when drafting guidelines for allowing listed companies to invest in cryptocurrencies. The regulators believe that since South Korea's current Foreign Exchange Transactions Act does not recognize stablecoins as legally recognized means of foreign payment, allowing corporations to invest in stablecoins in the guidelines would conflict with the existing legal framework. Although some companies with cross-border trade needs hope to use stablecoins for currency hedging and instant settlement, the Financial Services Commission (FSC) has initially decided to only allow the top 20 non-stablecoin assets by market capitalization (such as BTC and ETH) in the first phase, and the investment amount may be limited to 5% of the company's own capital.