South Korea is moving to bring traditional stocks, bonds and funds into its regulated token-securities framework, while Kakao Pay Securities and Dinari have launched an exploratory partnership to tokenize Korean-listed equities for overseas investors.
The Financial Services Commission proposed subordinate rules ahead of amendments to the Electronic Securities Act and Capital Markets Act, which are scheduled to take effect on February 4, 2027. The draft covers eligible securities, issuer requirements and OTC trading rules. Retail investors would be limited to 100 million won in annual net purchases on each approved OTC platform, while qualifying non-financial issuers would need at least 4 billion won in equity capital to manage their own tokenized securities accounts. Public consultation runs from October 2 through November 11.
The first implementation stage focuses on privately placed money-market funds and bonds for institutions, trust-based tokenization of unlisted shares, and publicly offered fractional investment securities. Publicly offered traditional securities would be added later, and the final stage envisions connecting tokenized securities infrastructure with onchain payment systems, possibly including stablecoins.
Kakao Pay Securities and Dinari announced their partnership on September 29. The companies plan a joint task force to build a sourcing framework for underlying Korean equities, run a proof of concept, and assess operational, technical and regulatory requirements. Dinari says it already offers 724 tokenized U.S. stocks and ETFs in more than 85 jurisdictions and is registered with the SEC as a transfer agent. Kakao Pay Securities obtained an investment trading business license in July 2026.
Other Korean financial firms are also preparing for the 2027 launch. KB Securities signed an agreement with Securitize and the Optimism Foundation to develop tokenized funds, initially centered on a money-market fund. Hanwha Investment & Securities has reportedly completed a tokenized securities platform supporting Avalanche and Hyperledger Besu. Eugene Investment & Securities and BEATOZ agreed to test stablecoin settlement for token securities subscriptions.
