The Bank of Korea plans to launch the second phase of testing for its central bank digital currency (CBDC) infrastructure in September 2026 with the participation of 9 commercial banks. The pilot will test real world payments, peer-to-peer transfers, and government disbursements.
The Bank of Korea (BOK) is preparing to launch the second phase of Project Hangang, its pilot program for testing CBDC infrastructure. During this stage, the central bank aims to move the system closer to commercial use by expanding the functionality of deposit tokens and broadening their practical applications.
Live transactions could begin as early as September 2026 if system development and participant onboarding stay on schedule. Unlike the first phase, which focused primarily on validating payment technology, the new round is expected to establish the foundation for the model’s future commercialization.
The first phase of Project Hangang ran from April through June 2025. It involved 81,000 digital wallets, whose holders completed 114,880 transactions using deposit tokens. The pilot confirmed the technical feasibility of using bank issued digital liabilities for retail payments on top of a wholesale CBDC.
The pilot’s architecture provides for the Bank of Korea to issue a wholesale CBDC for interbank and infrastructure settlement. Commercial banks will use it as the underlying settlement asset while issuing deposit backed digital tokens to end users. As a result, consumers won’t have direct access to the CBDC itself, but they’ll be able to use payment instruments that settle through the central bank’s infrastructure.
The following major South Korean commercial banks will participate in the second phase of the pilot:
- KB Kookmin Bank
- Shinhan Bank
- Hana Bank
- Woori Bank
- NH Nonghyup Bank
- Industrial Bank of Korea
- Busan Bank
- Kyongnam Bank
- iM Bank
The banks will test peer to peer transfers of deposit tokens, biometric authentication, automated funding and withdrawals, and simplified user onboarding. The network of merchants accepting digital assets will also expand. In addition to merchants recruited directly by the Bank of Korea, deposit tokens will be accepted by companies that have entered into agreements with participating banks.
The new phase of Project Hangang introduces a broader range of use cases while shifting part of the initiative to commercial banks. The Bank of Korea will continue to provide the core CBDC infrastructure, while participating banks will be able to develop products and payment services based on deposit tokens independently.
As part of the second phase, authorities will also continue testing the use of deposit tokens for government disbursements, a program launched in April 2026. The first pilot use case will involve subsidy payments to operators of electric vehicle charging infrastructure. Recipients will open dedicated digital wallets to receive budget funds. The conditions governing the use of those payments will be programmed in advance. The Bank of Korea and the government expect this model to limit the misuse of subsidies and provide end to end visibility into the movement of public funds within the blockchain system.
Another area of infrastructure development will focus on the tokenization of government bonds. South Korea’s Ministry of Economy and Finance plans to conduct a pilot issuance of tokenized government bonds in 2027 with settlement through a wholesale CBDC. The digital bonds are expected to circulate within a blockchain system, while final settlement between financial institutions will be conducted in digital won.
Earlier, the South Korean government officially included the development of blockchain technology and the digital asset market in its economic growth strategy for the second half of 2026.
