The Bank of Korea has begun recruiting cryptocurrency experts, simultaneously restarting the digital won project and planning to launch a pilot this year

The Bank of Korea announced the recruitment of 10 new employees, some of whom are required to have at least five years of experience in the cryptocurrency industry, starting as digital asset market analysts as early as July this year, responsible for researching the impact of cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, and tokenized assets on financial stability.

The recruitment news coincides with the central bank's restart of the CBDC project, the Han River project, which was halted last year due to feedback from pilot users regarding inconvenience. The new round of plan adjustments is repositioned towards government and enterprise application scenarios: the authorities aim to distribute 25% of government subsidies in digital won by 2030 and plan to launch pilot payments in the first half of 2026. The head of the digital currency planning team at the Bank of Korea stated that stablecoins and CBDCs are not in competition but rather complement each other. This deployment aligns with upcoming legislation, as South Korea will lift the long-standing ban on the domestic issuance of cryptocurrencies and stablecoins.