Korean Institutions Onchain: RWA

Ethereum Korea One: Genesis · Day 1 · 2026-09-28 · 19:49 · In Korean

What are the securities firms leading Korea's security token market executing right now, and what challenges do they face? In the final session of Ethereum Korea One: Genesis, digital asset heads from DB Securities, Hanwha Investment & Securities, and Kyobo Securities share stories from the front lines of RWA.

Watch on YouTube

Speakers

Joosik Lee, Head of Digital Asset Business Team, DB Securities
Yoonyoung Choy, Head of Digital Asset Research Team, Hanwha Investment & Securities
Ryan Jang, Head of Digital Asset Biz, Kyobo Securities
Peter Chung, Head of Business Dept., Wavebridge (moderator)

About this session

Moderated by Peter Chung, Head of Business Dept. at Wavebridge, this panel has three securities firms present their security token and RWA execution strategies. Topics include domestic and overseas two-track strategies, why tokenized Treasuries and MMFs grew first, a PoC for foreign investors buying Korean stocks with stablecoins, and whether the Korea Securities Depository's standard requirement of "one security, one ledger" and the private chain premise are a starting point or a constraint.

Key takeaways

DB Securities is working with Busan Metropolitan City in Korea on tokenizing financial lease receivables generated from carbon reduction equipment, and is reviewing a project with the Optimism Foundation overseas. Started as a task force last November, it was quickly elevated to a regular team, showing that even a firm that is not a major player can do substantive projects with local governments using a small team.
Team Leader Joosik Lee said, "If you start building a strategy from the premise of taking no risk at all, you can't do anything," and explained that each step taken revealed the next one.
Yoonyoung Choy, Team Leader at Hanwha Investment & Securities, cited a relatively simple product structure plus added utility in collateral use and settlement as the reasons tokenized Treasuries drew attention first. Choy saw a model that starts with MMF-based fund management and collateral movement in domestic phase one, and moves over the long term toward stablecoin-based onchain settlement, as a good starting point.
A view was offered that as the super app race accelerates, the line between securities and virtual assets may blur, and that securities firms could go beyond tokenization platforms to take on the role of "extending the trust framework of existing capital markets onchain," including post-trade management and connecting traditional financial infrastructure with onchain systems.
Ryan Jang, Head of Biz at Kyobo Securities, explained that the stablecoin-based Korean stock investment PoC, developed in discussions with Wavebridge, SBI, and Ripple, "was not a tokenization project," but an attempt to reduce the friction foreign investors face in opening accounts, exchanging currency, and transferring funds. Jang noted that commercialization requires clarity on the legal nature of stablecoins, the range of institutions allowed to handle them, foreign exchange reporting, anti-money laundering, custody regulation, and who is responsible when incidents occur.
On "one security, one ledger" and the private chain premise, all three panelists acknowledged its value as a stable starting point for phase one, but cautioned against ledger silos and cutoff from overseas liquidity. They agreed that public blockchain use should be opened up in stages over the long term through data standards, API standardization, and clear allocation of responsibility.

Chapters

← Videos · EK1 Genesis event record