South Korea Prepares Second Phase of CBDC Pilot Project

South Korea's central bank digital currency pilot project, the Hangang Project, is set to enter its second phase. According to Odaily, the Bank of Korea and commercial banks are making final preparations for real transaction tests of deposit tokens, with actual trading expected to begin as early as September if system development and participant recruitment are completed as planned. In the first phase of testing from April to June last year, 81,000 people participated through e-wallets and completed 114,900 transactions using deposit tokens. The first phase mainly examined the deposit token payment system, while the second phase will focus on commercialization. South Korea's Ministry of Economy and Finance also announced in its second-half economic growth strategy released on the 15th that it will launch a government bond tokenization pilot project next year linked to the Bank of Korea's institutional CBDC.