[Kwon Seong-min Column] The Two Faces of Programmable Money

The GENIUS Act, the U.S. stablecoin regulation law, is set to take effect on January 18 next year, establishing a formal rulebook for dollar-pegged tokens. The column frames this as a dual-edged shift: tokenized dollars and blockchain-based U.S. equities are making it cheaper and faster for anyone with a smartphone to hold dollars and access global asset markets, a trend the author calls financial democratization. At the same time, programmable money could accelerate capital flows into U.S. financial markets, exporting dollar influence and exposing other countries' financial systems to new pressure as their capital chases U.S. yields and Treasuries. The piece does not cite specific token prices, total value locked, volumes or market caps, focusing instead on the structural implications of code-enabled money. What to watch next is the January 18 implementation and how foreign regulators respond as dollar-denominated, code-based assets spread.