Korea is Moving its Stocks Onchain, Here’s What it Means

South Korea remains one of the world’s most active crypto markets, as displayed by its shift from retail-dominated trading toward institutional infrastructure, stablecoins, and real-world asset (RWA) tokenization, backed by strong holdings, usage, and government support. In line with these developments, a leading Korean firm recently announced a partnership designed to further transform the Korean stock market and widen its global reach.

Kakao Pay Securities, a South Korean digital brokerage firm owned by the leading fintech platform Kakao Pay, is partnering with two major tokenized finance companies to develop a framework that allows Korean stocks to list in a global market. 

The announcement, made by Kakao Pay Securities on September 29th, revealed that the firm had come to a mutual agreement with Ondo Finance, a leading decentralized finance platform, and Dinari, a financial technology and infrastructure company that turns traditional public stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) into blockchain-based tokens known as “dShares.” All three firms intend to join forces to investigate and research the sourcing of underlying assets as well as how tokens could be issued and redeemed this year. 

The new development comes after Kakao Pay revealed its intentions to expand entry points that allow foreign investors to access Korean equities, with the aim of expanding into stock tokenization.

Following the announcement, Chung In-young, the vice president of Kakao Pay Securities, said the following: 

“Starting from trading in underlying shares, we will steadily verify technical feasibility through a proof of concept for stock tokenization, and open a path for shares of Korea’s leading companies to connect with broader markets.”

South Korea already outperforms a handful of countries worldwide in on-chain adoption. Notably, Korea ranks 2nd globally in on-chain cryptocurrency holdings, behind the US. This metric measures the total value of cryptocurrency verifiable on blockchain networks. 

Because domestic corporate participation in crypto remains limited, analysts attribute most of these holdings to individual and retail investors. Additionally, Korea ranked 5th in Chainalysis’s 2026 Global Crypto Adoption Index.