“Korea Can Also Compete with BlackRock Through ‘Tokenization’”... Promoting ‘K-BUIDL’ [Crypto Briefing]

[Financial News]“The greatest significance of tokenization is the ‘leveling’ of global financial markets. Korean financial institutions and Korean assets will no longer have to remain confined to the domestic market. They can compete in the same market as global players such as BlackRock.”Chris Yin, co-founder and CEO of Plume Network, made the remarks at “The Beginning of Won-Based Real-World Asset Tokenization and Opportunities in the Capital Markets,” held in Yeouido, Seoul, on the 11th.
The event was co-hosted by Tiger Research and Deloitte Korea and sponsored by real-world asset (RWA)-focused blockchain company Plume Network. Representatives from major domestic and overseas securities firms and financial institutions, along with members of the blockchain industry, gathered for discussions.
Yin said, “Tokenization was a topic of discussion several times in the past, but now the volume of on-chain capital is expanding around stablecoins, and tokenization-friendly systems and regulations are beginning to emerge in the United States, Korea, and Hong Kong. As the global environment changes due to war, inflation, and artificial intelligence (AI), investors are changing how they store and move their funds.”
He also emphasized the importance of “distribution” alongside products. “If financial products are connected to a single infrastructure, they can be distributed simultaneously through multiple on-chain channels,” he said. “Korean assets can also be sent to the global on-chain market through infrastructure such as Plume Network.”
Shinhan Asset Management and Shinhan Investment & Securities then explained their vision for “Korean-style tokenized products.” Park Seong-yeol, a manager at Shinhan Asset Management, presented a plan to first place relatively stable, well-managed cash-equivalent assets in the form of money market funds (MMFs) on-chain to build a “rail” (link), and then add attractive products such as bonds, equities, and alternative assets.
Park said, “BlackRock’s tokenized money market fund, the BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL), has gone beyond being a simple tokenized fund and has come to serve as financial infrastructure. Korea will also first establish won-denominated cash-equivalent assets created by asset managers and then gradually expand their distribution channels.”

Choi In-su, head of the Digital Assets Division at Shinhan Investment & Securities, predicted, “Tokenization can change how Korean financial institutions expand overseas. At present, they must establish overseas bases, hire personnel, build infrastructure, and invest capital. In tokenized finance, however, each business can combine areas such as customers, products, and infrastructure to gain rapid access to global markets.”
He explained, “However, competitive returns are also necessary for a business to be viable in practice. Considering foreign-exchange conversion and hedging costs, the challenge for securities firms and banks is to create a return structure exceeding 4%. Because it is difficult to build the value chain using only domestic regulations, we are placing greater emphasis on validating the business’s potential offshore.”
Soomin Kim, head of Korea operations at Plume Network, cited the earlier presentations and discussed how won-denominated financial products could be exported to the actual global on-chain capital market. Kim emphasized, “The share of won-denominated assets is effectively close to zero. The first step must be to place won-denominated cash-equivalent assets on-chain.”
Kim added, “An institutional foundation is necessary for won-denominated assets to be used as actual collateral and connected to settlement. Once the necessary framework is established in Korea, won-based RWAs can grow much faster.”

[email protected] Sang-hyeok Lim Reporter