According to ETNews Korea, the Bank of Korea (BOK) plans to launch the second phase of Project Hangang as early as September. It will expand participating banks from 7 in the first phase to 9, and raise the user cap to 500k—far higher than the first phase’s opening-wallet scale of about 81k. The newly participating banks are Kyongnam Bank and iM Bank.
Scale-up in Project Hangang second phase
The main scale differences between the second phase of Project Hangang and the first phase are as follows:
First phase (April–June 2025): 7 banks, about 81k people opening wallets, about 114.9k transactions, about 12k merchants; about 42% of wallet holders had previously made purchases
Second phase (launch in September 2026): 9 banks (adding Kyongnam Bank and iM Bank), user cap of 500k, and the introduction of real trade testing
Core goal shift: From the first phase’s “payment infrastructure validation” to a test closer to everyday financial scenarios—“cross-bank, cross-merchant, and public-fund disbursement.”
New features in the second phase: P2P transfers, biometric payments, and the first test of government subsidy disbursement on-chain using programmable deposit tokens
The second phase will add multiple functions that are more aligned with bank services, making digital won’s daily payment capabilities more complete: person-to-person (P2P) transfers, biometric payments, automatic top-ups, fixed-term automatic payments, cash receipt generation, and interest payments. If the tokenized deposit balance inside a user’s account is insufficient, the system can automatically convert funds from the linked bank account to improve the convenience of daily payments.
Among the most closely watched items is that the Bank of Korea will conduct its first test of issuing government subsidies using programmable deposit tokens. The design supports usage limits, disbursement conditions, and transaction tracking—allowing government funds to be directly distributed from digital wallets to designated recipients, achieving real-time, low-cost, and auditable fund circulation.
CBDC system architecture: a two-layer design with wholesale CBDC back-office settlement and deposit tokens from commercial banks
Project Hangang adopts a two-layer architecture: the Bank of Korea issues a wholesale CBDC as a settlement asset among financial institutions, and the general public does not directly hold this CBDC layer. Commercial banks, in turn, issue deposit tokens on top of the central bank’s infrastructure, enabling users to make everyday payments through bank wallets or payment interfaces.
The head of the digital currency planning team at the Bank of Korea, Kim Dong-seop, describes this architecture as a “compromise solution between CBDC and stablecoins.” Bank of Korea officials said the goal of the second phase is to lay the groundwork for future commercialization.
FAQ
When will Project Hangang’s second phase be launched, and how does its scale compare with the first phase?
According to ETNews Korea, the Bank of Korea plans to launch the second phase of Project Hangang as early as September 2026. Compared with the first phase’s 7 banks and about 81k users, the second phase will expand to 9 banks, with a user cap reaching 500k, and the test content will be more closely aligned with everyday financial scenarios.
What is the significance of the government-subsidy function added in the second phase?
For the first time, the Bank of Korea will test disbursing government subsidies using programmable deposit tokens. The design supports usage limits, disbursement conditions, and transaction tracking. If the test goes smoothly, social welfare subsidies, local revitalization coupons, or funds from specific policy programs may circulate through digital wallets in a real-time, low-cost, and auditable way.
Besides CBDC, what other digital currency initiatives is South Korea pursuing?
The Bank of Korea, through Hana Bank, has begun designing future support for the issuance, redemption, settlement, digital wallets, and anti–money laundering systems for a won stablecoin. The South Korean government also plans to update the National Assets Act, which has a 70-year history, to include cryptocurrencies in national asset classifications—showing that South Korea is simultaneously pushing forward three tracks: CBDC, deposit tokens, and the won stablecoin.
