Major securities and virtual asset exchanges such as the U.S. Nasdaq and Binance Holdings Ltd. are tokenizing traditional financial assets like stocks and bonds on-chain (on a Blockchain network) to attract investors worldwide. Korea is set to implement a security token offering (STO) regime in Feb. next year, but standardized securities tokenization is reportedly being excluded first from the permitted scope.
According to the virtual asset industry on the 6th, the Financial Services Commission plans to announce the "subordinate regulation amendment and guidelines for the institutionalization of security tokens" within this month. The guidelines are widely expected to include regulatory overhauls for non-standardized securities, such as small-scale fractional investments in real estate, artworks, music, and premium Korean beef, known as hanwoo.
The industry expects that the permitted scope of tokenization for standardized securities such as bonds, money market funds (MMF), and stocks, as well as plans to build an on-chain settlement system, will be excluded from this amendment and likely pursued in phases later.
Overseas, markets for trading traditional financial assets such as stocks, Government Bonds, and MMFs on the Blockchain are evolving rapidly. The Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC) plans to launch full services in Oct., following this month's pilot transactions of tokenized securities. Nasdaq and Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the parent of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), are also reshaping the market through stock tokenization.
In step with the pace of building market infrastructure, companies are also expanding into stock tokenization. Robinhood, the U.S. Fintech company that pioneered the era of mobile trading system (MTS) investing, officially launched a tokenized stock service in 120 countries. The market for stock tokens that trade unlisted shares such as SpaceX and OpenAI in token form has grown 130% this year alone.
Nasdaq, the NYSE, and others plan to shift to Blockchain-based 24-hour trading and real-time settlement by next year. The domestic industry worries that if tokenization of standardized securities is delayed, the competitiveness of the domestic market will fall behind in the global asset tokenization race.
Major overseas virtual asset exchanges such as Binance Holdings Ltd. and Backpack are rolling out products that move similarly to the share prices of major companies like Samsung Electronics, SK hynix, and SpaceX to attract investors.
An industry official said, "Major exchanges in each country are competing to build systems that can trade all products 24 hours a day, 365 days a year," and noted, "In Korea, standardized securities tokenization does not appear feasible in the short term, so the investment flow is completely falling behind."