South Korea weighs 5% cap on companies' crypto holdings

South Korea’s Financial Services Commission is considering a rule to cap listed companies’ cryptocurrency investments at 5% of equity capital, according to local media.

If implemented, companies could allocate up to 5% of equity capital per year to the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market value, though the inclusion of U.S. dollar stablecoins like USDT is still under discussion.

The proposal is part of South Korea’s move to ease restrictions on institutional cryptocurrency trading, after recent steps that allowed nonprofits and exchanges to sell certain digital assets.

Authorities are expected to introduce additional safeguards, such as split trading rules and price limits.

🔗 Source: CoinDesk

🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

Korea’s proposed 5% cap will steer institutional crypto buying; the total limit stays unclear

KOSPI market cap hit 3,000 trillion won (~$2 trillion) in 2025. KOSDAQ (Korean Securities Dealers Automated Quotations, Korea’s tech-heavy market) sits near 400 trillion won (~$308 billion) for about $2.3 trillion in total 1.
The 5% yearly limit ties to each firm’s shareholders’ equity, not its market cap. You cannot use KOSPI or KOSDAQ market caps to size a systemwide limit, and uptake will likely be lower since most treasury teams lack crypto mandates.
Limiting purchases to the top 20 coins by market cap signals a focus on liquidity and stability, steering demand to bitcoin and ether as market analysts predict.

Custody providers face an opening as 2,539 Korean listed firms could come under new guidelines

As of January 2024, KOSPI has 839 companies and KOSDAQ lists 1,700 firms, creating 2,539 potential corporate crypto participants 2.
BDACS, a South Korea-based institutional crypto custody provider, partnered with GK8 by Galaxy Digital for custody in Korea 3. It calls itself South Korea’s “first certified and regulated custody solution at the institutional level” 4.
Regulatory Technology (RegTech) vendors can ship tools that track the 5% equity cap and implement split trading rules, then generate audit trails for listed firms. Korean crypto exchanges and broker-dealers lack these features for crypto treasury management.
Corporate treasury software firms that integrate with custodians like BDACS can offer turnkey tools before companies build in-house crypto workflows.