Kyobo Life Creates Digital-Asset Unit to Expand Blockchain Business

Kyobo Life Insurance has created a dedicated digital-asset unit and begun laying out related businesses, as the insurer moves to get ahead of digital-asset legislation with blockchain-based initiatives such as security tokens, or STOs, and real-world assets, or RWAs.

Kyobo Life told Bloomingbit on May 12 that it established the dedicated department in April. The company has also steadily recruited specialists in planning and development since the second half of last year, it said. “We are preparing in advance before digital-asset legislation is in place and continuing to test various ideas,” a company official said.

The move also reflects Chairman Shin Chang-jae’s push to expand into what he has internally called “future finance.” In the second half of last year, Shin told executives that the group needed new initiatives to broaden a structure still heavily weighted toward insurance and should align its direction with blockchain-based businesses, according to the report.

The new department will oversee a mid- to long-term digital-asset roadmap for the broader Kyobo Group. Job postings released by Kyobo Life in the first half of this year show the company is planning businesses centered on stablecoins, STOs and Web3.

The insurer is reviewing the establishment of an overseas entity specializing in digital assets, along with cross-border payments and stablecoin use. It is also working on a blockchain-based digital-asset wallet, remittance and custody services, and an RWA platform.

Kyobo Life is also expanding partnerships with global blockchain companies. In April, it reviewed testnet operations for a project with Ripple to verify technology for trading government bonds using blockchain infrastructure. The work is designed to test a structure in which financial assets such as government bonds are converted into digital tokens and traded on a blockchain.

In December, the insurer became the only South Korean insurance company to participate in the public testnet for Arc, a network developed by Circle, the issuer of the USDC stablecoin. It has also joined the KDX Consortium as a major shareholder. The alliance is building an over-the-counter STO exchange led by Korea Exchange and Koscom.

The digital-asset industry is closely watching the move by Kyobo Life, which manages large pools of capital. Entry by a major insurance investor could accelerate the expansion of the digital-asset ecosystem and its integration into the regulated financial system. Kyobo Life had about 128 trillion won ($92.8 billion) in assets under management as of last year.

“One clear feature of the life insurance industry is that it tends to be relatively conservative in adopting new technologies,” an industry official said. “But given the size of Kyobo Life’s managed assets, interest will inevitably grow over the medium to long term in alternative investments using digital assets and in developing new products.”