스테이블코인은 법정통화나 실물자산에 연동되어 가격 안정성을 확보하는 디지털자산으로, 결제수단 및 가치 저장 수단으로의 기능을 수행하면서 기존 화폐 체계에 구조적 전환을 초래하였다. 본 연구는 스테이블코인의 개념과 유형, 법적 지위를 정리하고, 중앙은행 디지털화폐(CBDC)와의 비교를 통해 양자의 기능적 중첩과 정책적 충돌 관계를 분석하였다. 특히 중국, 미국, EU의 정책설계와 규제 동향을 비교함으로써 통화주권 확보와 금융안정이라는 국가 차원의 과제를 중심으로 각국의 전략적 대응을 분석하고, 이를 바탕으로 한국에 적용 가능한 실천적 시사점을 도출하였다. 한국의 경우, 원화 기반 민간 스테이블코인 도입이 진행 중이나 통화정책 유효성 및 통화량조절 권한의 약화 등 잠재적 위험 요소에 대한 대응은 아직 미흡한 실정이다. 이에 본 연구는 단기적으로 인가·감독 체계 하에서 원화 스테이블코인을 제도화하고, 준비자산 100% 이상 상시 예치, 상환 규정의 구체화, 공시·감사 의무, 유형별 차등 규율을 통해 제도적 신뢰를 확보할 것을 제안한다. 또한, 중·장기적으로는 도매형·목적형 CBDC를 단계적으로 추진함으로써 최종정산 기반과 상호운용성 표준을 구축하고, 위기 시 전환 옵션 및 국경 간 결제 역량을 점진적으로 축적하는 ‘공존형 2층 디지털 원화 체계’를 정책 방향으로 제시한다.

The expansion of stablecoins and central bank digital currencies is reshaping money and payment systems. Stablecoins are digital assets designed to maintain a stable value by linking to fiat currency or real-world assets, and they can improve payment efficiency by enabling faster settlement, lowering frictions in online commerce, and supporting new programmable payment services. Yet for non-reserve-currency economies, stablecoins also raise concerns about monetary sovereignty and financial stability. If foreign-currency stablecoins become widely used in domestic transactions or cross-border commerce, they can weaken a won-based payment and settlement environment and reduce the effectiveness of monetary policy transmission. At the same time, as stablecoins scale, public authorities face increasing burdens to ensure reserve quality, redemption reliability under stress, and strong operational and cyber safeguards that keep everyday payments functioning without disruption. This paper examines stablecoins and central bank digital currencies through the policy objective of strengthening monetary sovereignty and derives implications for Korea by comparing China, the United States, and the European Union. The comparison highlights that policy choices depend heavily on currency status and institutional context. China has advanced a proactive central bank digital currency strategy to preserve public control over core payment infrastructure, while tightly restricting private crypto-asset activity. The United States has prioritized the institutionalization of dollar-based stablecoins and has remained cautious toward retail central bank digital currency amid privacy concerns; as a reserve-currency country, global diffusion of dollar stablecoins can reinforce dollar influence rather than undermine it. The European Union has adopted a hybrid strategy by establishing a comprehensive stablecoin framework while also advancing the digital euro to preserve monetary sovereignty and ensure a credible public option. Korea’s recent policy trajectory reflects similar tensions. Legislative proposals to institutionalize won-based stablecoins have accelerated, aiming to bring issuance into a licensing and supervision framework with clear reserve, redemption, and disclosure requirements. Meanwhile, the Bank of Korea has continued to explore central bank digital currency-related use cases through pilots that connect central bank settlement assets with bank-issued instruments, but progress has also revealed practical constraints such as legal uncertainty, coordination challenges among stakeholders, and cost pressures in building and operating new infrastructure. Against this background, this paper proposes a coexistence-oriented two-tier digital won framework as Korea’s policy direction. In the short term, Korea should stabilize the market by establishing a clear authorization and supervision regime for payment stablecoins denominated in won, with enforceable redemption rights, robust reserve requirements focused on safe and highly liquid assets, strict segregation of reserve assets from the issuer’s own balance sheet, credible periodic disclosure and external assurance, limits on practices that could weaken reserve integrity, and consistent anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing obligations across issuers and key intermediaries. At the same time, policy should explicitly design user incentives so that won-based regulated instruments remain attractive relative to dollar stablecoins, for example by improving domestic merchant acceptance, settlement finality, consumer protection standards, and predictable dispute handling. In the medium to long term, Korea should develop central bank digital currency or tokenized central bank settlement assets in a phased manner, focusing first on areas with higher incremental benefits such as inter-institution settlement, settlement for tokenized financial assets, selected public-sector use cases, and cross-border payment and settlement capacity, while adopting privacy-by-design through a two-tier distribution structure and data minimization. This paper proposes the coexistence-oriented two-tier digital won framework as the policy direction for Korea.