Multiple South Korean Firms Reportedly ‘Preparing Security Token Offering Platforms’

A number of South Korean firms are preparing to launch security token offering (STO)-related services this year. And they are hopeful that regulators will give them the green light to get started this month.

Busan Ilbo reported that a number of major domestic companies are now keenly awaiting industry guidelines from the nation’s top financial regulator – the Financial Services Commission (FSC).

The FSC is slated to make an announcement about STOs on January 19, although full details of the regulator’s intention may not become clear until later this month.

But it appears that many firms are confident that the FSC will not throw up too many hurdles in their path, with multiple domestic securities companies “busy preparing digital asset platforms” that can handle and/or issue tokens.

They will be joined in their efforts by the city of Busan, which hopes to make STOs a key part of the city-run Digital Assets Exchange project. The project is being developed in conjunction with a number of top international crypto exchanges, including Binance.

The FSC has previously stated that it will make announcements about the “distribution and issuance of security tokens.” Currently, all forms of crytpoasset issuance are outlawed in South Korea, although the current President has suggested he will overturn this rule.

Which South Korean Companies Hope to Launch Security Token Platforms?

Busan has been granted special regulation-free status in the sphere of blockchain technology. And a number of the private-sector projects it has nurtured in its sandbox space are related to STOs, including a tokenized real estate project.

The city hopes that its Digital Assets Exchange will be allowed to handle STOs alongside crypto projects both international and domestic.

The Korea Exchange, the nation’s only securities exchange operator, is also eyeing the STO market. Its chairman Sohn Byung-doo recently spoke of the Korea Exchange’s “plan to open a digital stock market that will list and trade security tokens this year” – and base this operation in Busan.

Other players include the securities arms of the banking giants Kookmin (KB) and Shinhan. Both have reportedly completed internal “testing on their platforms” and hope to roll them out this year.

Kiwoom Securities, a dedicated securities and investment player, has also reportedly “established a new digital asset research unit” that is working on securities token trading-related matters.

Last year, South Korean media reports detailed details of seven domestic securities firms’ plans to launch crypto exchanges “within 2023.”