Meritz Securities Says Institutions Will Lead Digital-Asset Growth, Expand Tokenized Securities Business

Interview with Kang Byung-ha, Executive Director of Strategy Planning at Meritz Securities

Digital-asset market shifts toward institutions and real financial demand

STOs, RWAs and stablecoins to drive growth

"Blockchain and AI to reshape payments and settlement"

"The digital-asset market will increasingly be led by institutions and the regulated financial sector, with growth driven by real financial demand rather than speculation. Digital assets should no longer be viewed simply as investment targets, but as part of a broader ecosystem that includes tokenized financial products and blockchain-based distribution and payment infrastructure."

Kang Byung-ha, executive director of strategy planning at Meritz Securities, told Bloomingbit in an Aug. 20 interview that the digital-asset market has entered a new turning point as traditional financial assets move on-chain in earnest. While price gains and speculative demand drove the market in the past, growth ahead will be led by institutions and real demand through security tokens, real-world asset tokenization and stablecoins.

In the market's early stages, investors paid excessive attention to prices and speculative demand was strong, Kang said. The market is now maturing as the focus shifts to technology and practical use cases. Over time, institutions and the regulated sector will take center stage, with expansion rooted in actual financial demand.

Institutions reshape the market from speculation to utility

Kang said the boundary between traditional finance and digital assets is fading quickly. Firms such as BlackRock are expanding into blockchain-based products, while Web3-native companies such as Ondo Finance are broadening their links with regulated finance.

Traditional financial firms are pulling digital assets into their existing business lines. Digital-asset companies, meanwhile, are extending their reach into mainstream finance. Markets that allow stable institutional participation, including security tokens and stablecoins, are also beginning to take shape.

As tokenization spreads across financial products, securities firms will be able to handle a wider range of products and serve a broader group of investors, he said. That could improve access to overseas assets and help global capital move more smoothly.

Tokenized assets stand to expand liquidity, cut trading costs and shorten settlement cycles, Kang said. They can be traded without being constrained by the operating hours of traditional exchanges. Deeper liquidity, in turn, could lower transaction costs and speed settlement.

He said a financial company's response to the shift on-chain will be a key factor in determining future competitiveness. Investment costs and trial and error will be unavoidable as firms adopt new financial infrastructure. But once the market structure is reshaped, the competitiveness gap between early movers and laggards could widen.

Meritz to gradually expand tokenized securities business

Meritz Securities has a dedicated digital-asset team and is preparing new investment products such as security tokens, along with blockchain-based distribution and payment infrastructure.

Digital assets should be viewed through two lenses at once: investment products and the blockchain infrastructure that supports them, Kang said. Banks are likely to expand into stablecoin businesses based on their payment capabilities, while securities firms are positioned to broaden tokenized-securities operations based on their experience handling stocks and bonds. He added that Meritz Securities also sees tokenized securities as an important business area.

Kang said the strengths securities firms have built in product sourcing, capital matching and distribution could also carry over into on-chain finance. Financial companies are well positioned to identify investment opportunities that require large pools of capital and trust, and to offer them at scale to institutions and retail investors. Participation by regulated financial firms could also reduce counterparty risk in decentralized markets and strengthen investor protection.

Meritz Securities plans to gradually widen the scope of its tokenized-securities business in line with regulatory changes. It is first preparing around non-standardized securities, and is reviewing an expansion into brokerage tied to tokenized standardized securities, including stocks and bonds, if such tokenization is allowed in the future.

The industry has largely completed preparations on the technology and business fronts and is now waiting for a regulatory framework to be established, Kang said. Once the regulatory environment becomes clearer, financial companies should be able to move ahead in earnest.

He also said the next three to five years will likely be a hybrid phase in which traditional finance and digital-asset markets continue to grow separately while expanding their points of contact. Rather than being merged into a single platform immediately, the two markets are expected to develop independently and gradually converge.

"Tokenization is just the tip of the iceberg" as AI reshapes payments and settlement

Kang said the combination of blockchain and artificial intelligence will improve efficiency across financial infrastructure. In that model, blockchain provides the foundation for transaction processing and settlement, while AI agents automate trade execution, error checks and know-your-customer procedures.

The combination of blockchain and AI agents could have an especially large effect on payments and settlement, he said. The expansion of tokenized investment products may be only the tip of the iceberg in terms of what financial consumers experience. Cutting the time needed to transfer assets and settle funds after a trade, while automating related procedures with AI, could reduce both costs and processing times across financial infrastructure.

Kang also expressed expectations for EastPoint: Seoul 2026, a private global conference on Web3, digital assets and AI scheduled for Sept. 28.

Through EastPoint, financial companies can absorb innovation and experimentation from the digital-asset industry, while digital-asset firms can learn about stability, compliance and consumer-protection systems from financial institutions, Kang said. He said he hopes the event will become a venue where both industries learn from each other's strengths and make up for their weaknesses.

Kang Min-seung, Bloomingbit reporter minriver@bloomingbit.io