[Legiscope] 'Legislative Void' Halts 15.1 Trillion Won Big Deal... The Future of Virtual Assets Trapped in the National Assembly's Filing Cabinets

A cumulative 40 digital asset-related bills proposed... 27 pending, not a single one has crossed the threshold
Due to the absence of 'licensing standards,' the Dunamu-Naver merger is delayed by 3 months, escalating market uncertainty

The 15.1 trillion won stock exchange between Dunamu and Naver Financial, which heralded a seismic shift in the virtual asset industry, has ultimately ground to a halt. The two companies announced on the 30th through a corrected disclosure that they would delay the merger by three months, citing the need to monitor the legislative progress of the Framework Act on Digital Assets. The companies are waiting for a decision from the National Assembly, but the clock of the National Assembly, which is supposed to process the bill, appears to be stopped.

Accumulating Bills, Halted Reviews

According to an analysis by News Epoch's legislative tracking engine 'Legiscope', out of 27 digital asset-related bills proposed since the opening of the 22nd National Assembly, not a single one has passed the threshold of a standing committee. When including those proposed during the 21st National Assembly, the cumulative number of proposed bills reaches a total of 40.

The 27 bills currently piled up in the National Assembly are broadly divided into three categories.

In particular, immediately after the promulgation of the Enforcement Decree of the User Protection Act in April 2025, concerns erupted that the law itself needed to be revised, resulting in 5 bills pouring out in just one month. Subsequently, in September, 'Framework Act'-type bills aimed at establishing the market's backbone were intensively proposed, but all of these are sleeping in filing cabinets without even being introduced to a subcommittee.

M&A Risks Brought by the Absence of a 'Regulatory Framework'

While 40 bills were proposed across two terms of the National Assembly, the only laws actually implemented are the main User Protection Act promulgated in March 2024 and its Enforcement Decree in April 2025. However, the current law has limitations as it is solely focused on 'user protection', such as protecting deposits and prohibiting unfair trade practices.

The core backbones of the market structure that the market desperately wants, such as ▲ the business licensing system ▲ token listing standards ▲ stablecoin regulations, still completely lack legal grounds. The 'approval of major shareholder change', the biggest hurdle in this Dunamu-Naver Financial merger, also relies on provisions in individual laws like the Specific Financial Information Act and the Credit Information Act, in the absence of a framework act.

As the licensing standards are unclear, predicting the review schedule for a large-scale M&A is almost impossible. The legislative void has essentially become an 'invisible regulation' that obstructs the business judgments of companies.

This Summer is the Last 'Golden Time'

This trend is highly likely to follow in the footsteps of the 21st National Assembly. At that time, 13 bills were proposed but failed to pass individually, and were instead discarded after being merged into a 'committee alternative'. The 27 bills currently pending are also expected to be combined into a single alternative, but the problem is the 'timing'.

The revised scheduled date for the stock exchange is September 30, 2026. The extraordinary general meeting of shareholders for this is set for August 18. Counting backward, government licensing and legislative uncertainties must take shape by this summer at the latest for the 15.1 trillion won big deal to proceed normally.

The more delayed the National Assembly's answer on how to regulate the digital asset market is, the greater the 'opportunity cost of legislative delay' the market will have to bear.

This article was written based on Legiscope, a legislative tracking engine built by News Epoch.

Legiscope collects and classifies public legislative data, such as the National Assembly's Bill Information System, promulgated laws by the Ministry of Government Legislation, and legislative notices, and applied its own classification model for the regulatory/supportive nature of each bill.

Analysis targets: 40 bills related to digital assets and virtual assets (27 pending, 13 processed).

Data collection baseline date: March 31, 2026.