기관용 CBDC 기반 민간 디지털 통화의 등장과 향후 과제 : 이머니 토큰을 중심으로

International organizations and advanced central banks have recently conducted R&D and experiments on wholesale CBDCs. Similarly, in Korea, starting from 2023, the central bank and financial authorities are jointly implementing the “CBDC Pilot Project” to test with the issuance and distribution of private digital money based on wholesale CBDCs. One type of private digital money based on wholesale CBDCs is “tokenized e-money”, which is a tokenized payment instrument backed by wholesale CBDCs similar to a reserve asset. Under current law, tokenized e-money has the most similar legal characteristics to electronic payment means under the “Electronic Financial Transactions Act”. However, it can also be recognized as a stablecoin because its value is guaranteed to be 1:1 with fiat currency and it can be directly transferred between users. Nonetheless, the “Electronic Financial Transactions Act” requires that issuers control transaction information based on the traditional central computer system of payment service providers, which fundamentally limits the regulation of tokenized e-money based on DLT. Tokenized e-money can be directly transferred between users through electronic wallets, making it difficult to meet the requirements for real name verification, transaction records management, and centralized system processing. Furthermore, even if private keys can actively be interpreted as ‘means of access’, the “Electronic Financial Transactions Act” does not regulate electronic wallet business entities, resulting in a regulatory gap. Additionally, there are ambiguities regarding when payments take effect, and how the CBDC network and its operator should be interpreted. Therefore, when institutionalizing tokenized e-money, it is deemed appropriate to regulate them within the framework of the second phase of virtual asset legislation, based on their similarities to stablecoins. In this second phase of legislation, they should be regulated similarly to single-currency referenced stablecoins. Meanwhile, considering that they use CBDCs as reserve assets, it may be necessary to structure them separately or establish specific provisions. Regarding reserve assets, the requirements for eligible reserve assets and custodians, as well as the contents of management and supervision over these reserve assets, should be defined according to their characteristics. Additionally, the legal definitions of electronic wallets and private keys should be clarified. Furthermore, a regulatory framework for the issuance and management of electronic wallets, custody of private keys, and security policies should be established. For real-name verification, it is necessary to review the KYC policies of the electronic wallets. In terms of ledger management, regulations should be developed to ensure safety while considering the characteristics of distributed ledgers.