South Korea's Ministry of Economy & Finance announced that its “blockchain-based digital currency treasury disbursement pilot” has been selected as a 2026 planning-type regulatory sandbox project led by the Office for Government Policy Coordination, enabling a test of paying government operating expenses using deposit tokens. The pilot focuses on disbursing business promotion expenses, which are currently executed via government purchasing cards and subject to after-the-fact explanations when used at restricted times such as late nights or weekends. While the National Treasury Management Act requires certain operating expenses to be paid through government purchasing cards, the regulatory sandbox will allow disbursement using deposit tokens, creating an experimental basis for a new payment and settlement method. The ministry plans to use blockchain to pre-set and control permissible payment times and merchant categories to improve spending transparency, and expects a disintermediated payment structure to help reduce fee burdens for small merchants. The initiative is presented as the second case of applying digital currency and deposit tokens to treasury disbursement following a pilot for electric vehicle charging infrastructure subsidies, and as the first planning-type regulatory sandbox case to be driven end-to-end by the ministry from制度 review through operator selection and running. Next steps include selecting participating operators and working with relevant agencies and firms to define the testing scope, with full pilot implementation targeted for the fourth quarter of 2026. The project will start primarily in Sejong City, with plans to expand the scope in phases and pursue broader rollout to other fiscal programs alongside related legal and regulatory adjustments.

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