The Bank of Korea has launched the second phase of the "Hangang" project to test the digital won, including wholesale digital won and deposit tokens issued by commercial banks. The testing focuses on mechanisms for subsidy payments and automated transactions ahead of the retail digital currency rollout. In the first phase, completed in July 2025, 118,000 test transactions were conducted, totaling 692.46 million won. Despite banks’ doubts about commercial viability due to high infrastructure costs, the second phase includes biometric identification, direct wallet-to-wallet transfers, and automatic top-ups with conversion into deposit tokens.
