[Blooming Lunch] Plume’s Kim Su-min Wants to Put Korean Blue-Chip Assets On-Chain

Kim Su-min, Head of Korea at Plume Network

“I Got Into Web3 Without Even Knowing What a Wallet Was”

Working to Tokenize Korean Assets

“You Have to Deal With Licensing, Compliance and Everything”

“Meet good people and have good conversations” is the idea behind Blooming Lunch. We meet people in the crypto scene — the blockchain and digital-asset ecosystem — and tell the story of their work and their lives.

Kim Su-min, head of Korea at Plume Network, has an unexpectedly down-to-earth side. It showed up in his choice of interview venue. Despite his polished image, Kim picked a gomtang restaurant without hesitation, saying he prefers simple, lightly seasoned food.

We met at Geodae Gomtang’s Seocho branch in Seoul. The restaurant, which began in Busan’s Haeundae district, is known for clear broth simmered from premium Korean beef bones. After waiting with Kim for about 15 minutes outside, we went in.

Once seated, we ordered beef gomtang and Pyongyang naengmyeon. Kim recommended adding herring roe jeotgal, saying it is a must-try at Geodae Gomtang and cannot be ordered for delivery. He said he sometimes visits the restaurant just for that dish and often goes to a Pyongyang naengmyeon restaurant near his office as well.

The food arrived quickly. The beef gomtang came with several slices of beef in a pale broth. The herring roe jeotgal was moderately salty without a fishy taste. Its popping texture paired well with the mild broth of the naengmyeon. After tasting the soup, Kim laughed and said it was good every time.

Kim entered the crypto industry five years ago, almost by accident. After completing a master’s degree in the US and returning to Korea, he joined an overseas digital-asset project on a recommendation from an acquaintance. At the time, he said, he knew so little about Web3 that he did not even know MetaMask, the world’s largest crypto wallet provider.

His first assignment was to connect MetaMask to a platform and stake Ether. Because there was little reference material available at the time, it took him three to four days to do it properly. Looking back, Kim said the task became the fastest way for him to understand Web3. For a while, he spent his evenings reading blockchain books and writing summaries as though he were studying for an exam.

From Chromia to Plume

Kim later worked at a Korean crypto media outlet and at Chromia before joining Plume Network last year as head of Korea. Plume is a public blockchain project focused on real-world assets, or RWAs. Working in the industry only strengthened his conviction that Web3 would continue to grow, he said. The field also appealed to him because it offered broader responsibility and more room to grow than is typical for someone at his stage of career.

His job at Plume Network has two main tracks. One is to deliver information about the network to the Korean market without distortion. That includes communicating with institutions such as cryptocurrency exchanges.

The other is tokenizing high-quality Korean assets in ways that can attract overseas capital. Kim said he sees that work as especially important. To distribute RWAs through lawful procedures, he said, the company has to address a wide range of issues including licensing and compliance. It may look at first glance like a problem technology alone can solve, but in practice much of the work is more complicated than it appears.

He added that the assets currently being reviewed for tokenization in Korea are financial assets that generate interest on their own. Related details will be announced soon, he said.

Kim also said Plume Network’s organizational culture left a strong impression on him. The company sets clear mission goals across the organization every week, month and quarter. That creates pressure to deliver results, but also a strong sense of achievement when each goal is met. He added that employee protections are systematically handled, with the company paying close attention to sensitive issues such as token compensation, tax reporting and insider-trading rules to prevent problems later.

“I Want to Be an Expert With a Human Touch”

After the meal, we moved to WeWork Gangnam, the nearby shared office that houses Plume Network’s Korea office. Sitting in the 10th-floor lounge over tea, we continued the conversation. Kim said he works there every morning unless he has outside meetings.

Asked what he hopes to achieve in the crypto industry, Kim said he wants to bring Korean blue-chip assets that have yet to draw attention overseas onto the blockchain and give them a chance to shine. On a personal level, he said, he wants to become an expert with a human touch and to be remembered that way by former colleagues.

As for hobbies, he picked cooking. He enjoys listening to music too, but called cooking his favorite pastime. Kim said he puts his phone away when he cooks. Washing, trimming and preparing ingredients helps him forget about work, he said, which is why he tries to make his own dinner every evening.

Cooking is also one way he builds relationships. Kim said he keeps a large dining table at home and often invites guests over for home-cooked meals. A gathering of industry peers he frequently hosts is called “Home Meal DAO,” a reference to a decentralized autonomous organization. He said he has become closer with colleagues after inviting them over and cooking for them, adding that food made by hand carries real power.

He also talked about recently selling all of his furniture through secondhand marketplaces. Kim said he had grown frustrated by being so busy with work that he could not even make time for travel. On impulse, he listed his dining table, storage cabinets and other furniture online, and everything sold within three days. Now his living room is empty and he has to buy furniture again, he said with a laugh, calling it one of those occasional “compound crises” office workers go through.

After the interview, we left WeWork. Kim walked us to the lobby and checked the rest of his schedule. He said he still had plenty of work left before a late-night video meeting with the company’s US headquarters. He was tired, he said, but the work was clearly rewarding.

This interview was conducted without sponsorship or financial compensation from any restaurant or brand and without commercial intent. The Blooming Lunch series is intended to capture informal, free-flowing interviews at restaurants favored by the interviewee.