KB Securities of South Korea Partners with Securitize and Optimism to Launch Tokenized Funds
KB Securities of South Korea has signed a memorandum of understanding with tokenization platform Securitize and Ethereum Layer 2 network Optimism to issue tokenized financial products for institutional investors in South Korea on the OP Mainnet. The first products will include a tokenized money market fund and a fund based on KB Asset Management's flagship strategy. This marks KB Securities' first public foray into the tokenization business.
The roles of the three parties are clearly defined. KB Securities will handle product supply, underwriting, issuance, sales, and institutional client engagement. Securitize will provide the tokenization platform and serve as the fund manager and transfer agent. Optimism will be responsible for the underlying OP Stack technology, system integration, client management, and marketing support. This is reportedly the second collaboration between OP Mainnet and Securitize to serve institutional issuers.
The product rollout will occur in two phases. The first phase will issue the tokenized money market fund and the KB Asset Management strategy fund. The second phase will expand to tokenized stocks, ADRs, corporate bonds, and South Korean government bonds once the regulatory framework for tokenized securities in South Korea is established. KB Securities is also considering introducing overseas-issued tokenized fund products to South Korea for local institutions.
The regulatory window has opened. The South Korean National Assembly amended the Electronic Securities Act and the Capital Markets Act on January 15, 2026, with new regulations for tokenized securities set to take effect in February 2027, led by the Financial Services Commission and implemented in three phases. The first phase will cover institutional private placement money market funds, private debt, digitally tokenized non-listed stocks through trust structures, and publicly offered small fragmented investment securities. The second phase will expand to public securities. The third phase will introduce on-chain stablecoin settlement to achieve synchronized delivery of securities and funds. Tokenized securities will be classified as securities and will not be taxed as crypto assets, allowing existing brokerages to conduct business under their current licenses.
Partner scale: Tokenized assets on the Securitize platform exceed $5 billion, with partners including BlackRock, Apollo, BNY, Hamilton Lane, and KKR. BlackRock's tokenized fund BUIDL is issued and managed by Securitize. OP Mainnet was launched in December 2021. KB Securities CEO Kang Jin-doo stated that this agreement lays the foundation for tokenized securities targeting local institutional investors. Securitize co-founder and CEO Carlos Domingo noted that South Korea is one of the most mature capital markets globally. OP Labs co-founder and CEO Jing Wang remarked that KB Securities' choice of OP Mainnet for its first tokenized product indicates that this model is viable outside the dollar market.
From a market mechanism perspective, this is a regulatory-driven proactive layout. The first products will enter through institutional private placement money market funds, aligning perfectly with the business scope of the new regulations' first phase, targeting institutional investors such as South Korean insurance companies, pension funds, and corporate finance departments. KB Securities will earn issuance and sales fees, Securitize will earn platform, management, and transfer agent service fees, while OP Mainnet will benefit from on-chain transaction and settlement traffic. The pressured parties include two types: those South Korean brokerage firms that have not yet publicly engaged in tokenization, and local fragmented investment startups that rely on a single license and lack institutional distribution channels. The new regulations allow existing licensed brokerages to conduct business directly, concentrating channel advantages among large financial groups.
Source: Public Information
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Securitize was founded by Carlos Domingo in 2017, initially focusing on security token issuance for small and medium-sized enterprises, a market that has long been quiet. A turning point occurred in 2024: in March, BlackRock launched the tokenized money market fund BUIDL on Ethereum, with Securitize serving as the tokenization platform and transfer agent; in May, BlackRock led a $47 million financing round for Securitize. In October 2025, Securitize announced a SPAC merger with Cantor Equity Partners II, valuing the deal at approximately $1.25 billion, with plans to go public in the U.S. It holds SEC-registered brokerage, ATS, and transfer agent licenses, providing a compliant pathway for the entire chain.
Optimism's capital strategy is to standardize OP Stack and then monetize it. In 2023, Coinbase built Base using OP Stack, promising to return a portion of the sequencer revenue to Optimism Collective and receiving an incentive arrangement of up to approximately 11.8 million OP tokens. Subsequently, Sony's Soneium, Kraken's Ink, and Uniswap's Unichain adopted OP Stack, forming a Superchain. By signing with KB Securities, Optimism is expanding its business model from "providing chains to crypto companies" to "serving traditional financial institutions as a settlement layer," aiming for the first share of non-dollar assets on-chain in Asia.
Other major Asian markets have followed similar paths. Japan, led by Mitsubishi UFJ, has built a tokenization platform called Progmat, adopting a bank-led, license-first model; Singapore's Monetary Authority is conducting cross-border tokenization pilots through Project Guardian in collaboration with institutions like JPMorgan and Standard Chartered; Hong Kong's Monetary Authority has launched Project Ensemble to test tokenized deposit settlements. South Korea's actions are more concentrated: Koscom's KoSTO platform has signed 12 brokerages, and Shinhan Asset Management is also collaborating to advance tokenized bond funds. South Korea is currently in an expansion phase before the legislation takes effect, with large brokerages racing to secure technology and partners before the new regulations come into effect in February 2027.
Structurally, this situation reflects regulatory changes. The new regulations in South Korea have two key designs. First, tokenized securities are still classified as securities and not as crypto assets, keeping issuance and trading within the brokerage and South Korean securities depository system. Second, existing licensed institutions are allowed to conduct business directly without needing new licenses. Together, these two points mean that tokenization in South Korea is not about crypto companies disrupting brokerages, but rather brokerages upgrading their businesses using on-chain technology, with the biggest beneficiaries being financial groups like KB that have a full chain of asset management, underwriting, and institutional distribution. The third phase's on-chain stablecoin settlement will wait for the framework for Korean won stablecoins to be established; until then, the on-chain portion can only complete asset registration and circulation, while the funding side will still rely on traditional clearing.
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