Kasa to Shut Down After Regulatory Sandbox Ends, Highlighting a 'Trust Gap' in Fractional Investment [Crypto Briefing]

[Financial News] Kasa, which opened the real estate fractional investment market through an innovative financial service, will shut down its platform next month. Although amendments to the Act on Electronic Registration of Stocks and Bonds and the Financial Investment Services and Capital Markets Act to institutionalize Security Token Offering (STO) were passed by the National Assembly in January, the general legal basis for issuing beneficiary certificates by entrusting non-monetary assets such as real estate and intellectual property (IP) was not included. Industry players are calling for follow-up legal revisions so that fractional investment operators that have relied on regulatory exceptions can move into the regulated market.
According to the financial investment industry on the 20th, Kasa announced on its website on the 10th that it would end platform operations on August 10. The company said it had failed to obtain approval for a beneficiary certificate investment brokerage business because it could not meet the institutionalization requirements under newly enacted related laws after the end of its designation period as an innovative financial service.
Kasa had operated issuance and trading services for trust beneficiary certificates based on small and mid-sized commercial real estate after being designated as an innovative financial service under the Special Act on Support for Financial Innovation. With the platform's closure, new transactions through Kasa will stop. However, existing investors should separately check the shutdown notice issued by Kasa and the account management financial institution for details on their rights and the procedures for asset transfer and management.
Kasa's shutdown has brought the issuance system for beneficiary certificates backed by non-cash trusts into focus. The amendment to the Act on Electronic Registration of Stocks and Bonds, passed by the National Assembly in January, recognizes distributed ledgers as securities account books and lays the groundwork for the issuance and management of tokenized securities. The amendment to the Financial Investment Services and Capital Markets Act allows the distribution of investment contract securities, which had previously been restricted from brokerage through securities firms. The revised laws are set to take effect on February 4, 2027, after subordinate regulations are updated and related infrastructure is established.
However, the revision did not include provisions that would generally allow beneficiary certificates to be issued by placing non-monetary assets such as real estate and IP into trust. While a new issuance and management framework for tokenized securities has been introduced, the scope of trust assets underlying beneficiary certificates and the requirements for issuance remain separate legal issues.
Earlier, the FSC established an approval category for beneficiary certificate investment brokerage to help fractional investment issuance platforms move into the regulated market. For the issuance of beneficiary certificates backed by non-cash trusts, however, it proposed using the Asset-Backed Securitization Act.
Applying the Asset-Backed Securitization Act requires either an asset holder designated by law to provide the underlying assets or a structure in which issuers first acquire the assets. If expensive assets such as real estate must be purchased in advance, substantial funding is needed. Since the qualifications for asset holders are also limited, the burden could be significant for startups with limited capital, observers said.
The FSC is discussing detailed measures with the goal of announcing subordinate rules and guidelines for the tokenized securities framework within this month. At the second meeting of the public-private Tokenized Securities Consultative Body held in May, participants discussed eligibility requirements for underlying assets, disclosure standards, the approval system for over-the-counter tokenized securities exchanges, and investor trading limits.
The FSC also plans to push ahead with a plan to allow pooling of underlying assets, which is currently prohibited, so that securities backed by fractional investment can be issued by grouping similar assets within a certain range. It also intends to prepare a phased roadmap for tokenizing conventional securities such as stocks, bonds and Money Market Fund (MMF), as well as for on-chain settlement.
However, the industry believes that subordinate rules and guidelines alone will not be enough to expand the legally restricted scope of issuing beneficiary certificates backed by non-cash trusts. It says follow-up amendments to higher-level laws such as the Financial Investment Services and Capital Markets Act may be necessary to broaden the legal basis for issuance.
An industry official said, "Before the tokenized securities system takes effect, we need to more clearly organize the issuance channels for beneficiary certificates backed by non-cash trusts and the structure for managing related rights." The official added, "Along with the subordinate rules, we should review areas that require supplementation under the Financial Investment Services and Capital Markets Act."

elikim@fnnews.com Kim Mi-hee Reporter