Senior Researcher Kim Gap-rae of the Capital Market Research Institute gives a lecture at the 2025 Virtual Asset Conference held at the Grand Ballroom of the Westin Chosun Hotel in Jung-gu, Seoul, on the morning of Nov. 16. /Courtesy of CHOSUNBIZ

Kim Kap-rae, senior researcher at the Korea Capital Market Institute, noted on the 16th that "under the Trump administration, regulations on virtual assets will become clearer and market predictability will increase."

Commissioner Kim gave a lecture on the theme of "Trump's new administration's digital asset market policies and implications" at the '2025 Virtual Asset Conference' held in the Grand Ballroom of the Westin Chosun Hotel in Jung-gu, Seoul, on that morning.

Commissioner Kim explained, "Until now, if the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has extended the concept of securities arbitrarily and imposed administrative actions on virtual asset corporations, the regulatory landscape is now shifting to clear legislative attempts."

In this changing environment, Commissioner Kim sees that the institutional uncertainty for virtual asset operators in the U.S. has dissipated and predictability has increased. He emphasized, "In light of the new regulatory situation, South Korea should quickly promote the second phase of the User Protection Act for virtual assets by closely analyzing trends in the U.S."

Additionally, it was projected that the next Trump administration would solidify dollar hegemony centered around U.S. dollar-backed stablecoins (virtual assets linked to fiat currency). Commissioner Kim mentioned, "After the Vietnam War, when the influence of the dollar weakened, the U.S. made oil transactions exclusively in dollars to elevate the status of the dollar." He assessed that the expansion of stablecoin usage promoted by the Trump administration is a strategy to counter the euro or the yuan, similar to past cases. He stated, "As blockchain replaces the role of the existing banking system, the expansion of stablecoin usage is an effective strategy."