DP is confirming there will be no further crypto tax delay, this is the clearest signal yet that January 2027 implementation is actually happening, not just the standard "we'll proceed as scheduled" line from earlier this summer. The reasoning: this has already been delayed three times, and delaying again on top of that would undermine the basic tax principle of "income gets taxed," a line DP officials are explicitly using. The government's newly released tax reform package also doesn't include any provision for further delay, confirming this at the policy-document level, not just in verbal statements. The problem critics are pointing to is sequencing. The Digital Asset Basic Act, which is supposed to establish the actual market rules, issuance, distribution, disclosure, still hasn't passed, with roughly 10 competing bills still stuck in committee. So Korea is on track to start taxing crypto income before the law governing the market itself exists. One industry source flagged the specific mechanical problems this creates: no loss offsetting across gains and losses, and easy avoidance paths through DeFi, meaning the tax burden falls disproportionately on ordinary users trading in won on domestic exchanges, likely accelerating capital flight to offshore platforms. The stock tax equity argument resurfaces too, since the financial investment income tax was scrapped, stock investors pay essentially nothing on capital gains, while crypto investors face a flat 22%. That's the exact fairness gap PPP has used against this tax from the start, and it's likely to reignite debate over reinstating the financial investment income tax as well. DP's response to all of this is to lean harder into finishing the Basic Act this session, want both the legal framework and the tax justification secured within the same legislative session. But the two things that killed every previous attempt, the ownership cap and the bank-majority stablecoin issuer structure, are still unresolved between government, ruling party, and opposition, so there's real doubt whether the Basic Act clears in time regardless of DP's intent. Meanwhile PPP keeps filing delay bills from a different angle, Jung Sung-kook's bill pushing implementation to 2030 being the most recent, positioning tax delay as a tool to use against the government in the upcoming tax reform review process rather than a genuine standalone push.