Lee Jae-myung Raises Question "Why Do You Have to Wait Two Days to Get Money from Stock Sales?" South Korean Exchanges Consider Implementing Blockchain Trading

South Korea’s stock market remains strong, but after February 27, it experienced two trading halts due to the Iran war. However, it quickly recovered and is now only 10% below its all-time high. Yet, the Korean financial sector is re-examining its longstanding trading system because of a seemingly simple question.

President Lee Jae-myung recently pointed out the core contradiction of the current “T+2” settlement mechanism: “Why do I have to wait until the day after tomorrow to get my money when I sell stocks today?” This statement not only highlights the efficiency bottleneck of traditional capital markets but also unexpectedly brings blockchain technology into the reform discussion.

The Korea Exchange mentioned the possibility of blockchain-based trading

Currently, the Korean stock market still uses a system where funds and securities are settled two business days after the transaction. This means that even if investors sell stocks, they must wait for the funds to be credited; buyers can make up the payment within a certain period, creating a credit delay in the transaction structure. This mechanism has long been built on complex processes involving clearinghouses, counterparty risk management, and fund allocation. However, in the digital and high-speed trading era, it is increasingly seen as inefficient.

In response to criticism, Korea Exchange Chairman Jeong Eun-woo has stated that he will push to shorten the settlement cycle and will consider international trends, even proactively preparing for related reforms. More importantly, the official has explicitly mentioned the potential role of blockchain. He added, “If blockchain technology is introduced into trading in the future, the clearing and settlement processes could disappear, shifting to an instant payment model.”

When the question “Why wait two days?” is raised, is tokenized T+0 settlement still far off?

The U.S. shortened its settlement cycle from T+2 to T+1 last year, and Europe plans to follow suit. Global markets are moving toward even shorter settlement periods or real-time settlement (T+0). However, unlike traditional systems that optimize processes by compressing time, the emergence of this question signals a fundamental loosening of the underlying logic of capital markets.

After the GameStop incident, U.S. brokerage Robinhood strongly lobbied regulators to reform the clearing system, ultimately leading to the reduction of the U.S. stock settlement cycle from T+2 to T+1. But the problem was not fully solved. In an era of 24-hour news cycles and instant reactions, T+1 still means that a Friday trade effectively becomes T+3, and during long holidays, it could extend to T+4.

(Robinhood Reflects on the Fifth Anniversary of GameStop: Stock Tokenization Is the Future)

Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev stated, “This is still too slow; risks still exist.” But the solution is not to patch the system but to replace it with a new one: stock tokenization.

Tenev believes that the real breakthrough lies in tokenization. Converting stocks into tokens on the blockchain can enable real-time settlement, 24/7 trading, fractional shares, and lower clearing and capital costs. More importantly, it significantly reduces systemic risk, allowing clearinghouses and brokerages to avoid large uncertainties during settlement periods, thereby removing the need for trading restrictions.

This article, where Lee Jae-myung raises the question “Why do stocks take two days to get the money?” and the Korea Exchange considers blockchain trading, first appeared on Chain News ABMedia.