There is a particular kind of optimism unique to government press briefings in Seoul, where a chairman stands before the National Assembly and promises that a landmark piece of legislation—one that 10 competing bills, two political parties, and an entire financial sector cannot agree on—will be wrapped up neatly by December.

On July 29, Financial Services Commission Chairman Lee Eok-won did exactly that. He told the Political Affairs Committee that the government’s consolidated Digital Asset Basic Act—a single statute meant to govern everything from stablecoin issuance and exchange ownership to anti-money-laundering enforcement—would be completed by year’s end. He said it with the confidence of a man…