South Korean Brokerages See Need for Public Blockchains, but Favor Gradual STO Rollout

Uk Jin

Summary

South Korean securities firms said they agree on the need for public blockchains, but added that applying them to actual business operations will take more time.
Hana Securities and Mirae Asset Securities said they are currently preparing STO businesses centered on private blockchains and could gradually consider public blockchains as the market expands.
Mirae Asset Securities and KB Securities said they are keeping long-term links to public blockchains and EVM chains in mind to connect global investors with domestic investors.

Forecast Trend Report by Period

From left: Oh Jong-wook, chief executive officer of Wavebridge; Kang Ki-beom, head of digital asset business at Hana Securities; Kim Jae-hyun of Mirae Asset Securities; and Kim Ji-won, an analyst at KB Securities. Photo: Jin Wook, Block Media

South Korean securities firms agree that public blockchains will be needed as core infrastructure for tokenized securities offerings, or STOs, and real-world assets, or RWAs, which are emerging as new growth areas for the country’s financial industry. Even so, they say it will take more time before the technology is adopted in actual business operations.

That view emerged at a panel discussion on "blockchains for STOs and RWAs" held June 16 at DSRV’s headquarters in Seoul during the Ethereum Korea One, or EK1, event. Speakers included Kang Ki-beom, head of digital new business at Hana Securities; Kim Jae-hyun of Mirae Asset Securities; and Kim Ji-won, an analyst at KB Securities.

Kang said firms operating within the regulated financial system face obstacles to applying public blockchains immediately. For now, the industry is preparing STO businesses on private-led structures such as consortium chains.

He added that expectations for public blockchains are clearly there, but it is still too early for them to lead to visible business results. Firms could review adoption gradually if the market expands and global business opportunities increase.

Kim of Mirae Asset Securities said public blockchains would be necessary to offer Korean financial assets to global investors and overseas assets to domestic investors. He added that the private blockchain now under development is also being built with future links to public blockchains, including EVM chains, in mind.

Still, regulatory and technical constraints mean domestic brokerages cannot immediately apply public blockchains to their systems, he said.

Kim Ji-won of KB Securities said the broad use of public chains for functions such as token issuance could take considerable time because of regulation. Even so, public blockchains are sufficiently feasible from a back-end infrastructure perspective, Kim said.