Korean brokerage Kakaopay teams up with Dinari and Ondo Finance for tokenized stock initiative
In collaboration with Dinari and Ondo Finance, Kakaopay Securities is investigating the tokenization of equities listed in Korea and making them accessible to global investors through blockchain technology.
Kakaopay Securities, a major South Korean financial institution, has entered into partnerships with blockchain tokenization platforms Dinari and Ondo Finance to investigate the possibility of tokenizing stocks listed on Korean exchanges and making them available to global market participants.
The South Korean brokerage firm revealed on Tuesday that it had signed distinct partnership agreements with both Dinari and Ondo, which will encompass the procurement of underlying Korean equity shares, the development of tokenization technology infrastructure, and the potential worldwide distribution of these digital assets beyond South Korean borders.
The collaboration with Dinari involves conducting a proof of concept utilizing Dinari's dShares platform, which is engineered to maintain all relevant shareholder rights, such as dividend payments and voting privileges. Currently, Dinari provides access to 724 tokenized United States stocks and exchange-traded funds via its dShares system, and the Kakaopay collaboration aims to investigate whether this framework can be adapted for equities listed on Korean stock exchanges.
In a statement to Cointelegraph, Dinari CEO Gabe Otte explained that the companies have not yet identified which specific Korean-listed corporations will be included in the proof of concept, and that they have not established a public timeframe for when these products might become commercially available. According to Otte, the planned framework would utilize shares actually listed on Korean exchanges as the underlying assets, as opposed to tokens that merely mirror their market prices.
The partnership between Kakaopay and Ondo will concentrate initially on developing a systematic approach for acquiring and maintaining custody of Korean-listed equity shares that could subsequently undergo tokenization. In this arrangement, Kakaopay would manage a foreign investor omnibus account designed to hold and oversee the underlying stock holdings.
Additionally, Ondo and Kakaopay plan to conduct research into the processes of token creation and redemption. Both organizations stated that any determination regarding whether or when to move forward with commercial launch of tokenized Korean stocks will be contingent upon satisfying legal and regulatory obligations both within South Korea and in international jurisdictions.
South Korea prepares for tokenized securities
These partnership announcements arrive as South Korea moves forward with implementing a comprehensive new regulatory structure for tokenized securities products. The nation's National Assembly gave approval to legislative amendments in January that officially recognize distributed ledger technology as legitimate securities registries and authorize the creation and trading of token securities.
During June, the Financial Services Commission connected the advancement of token securities infrastructure to a more comprehensive modernization effort for the nation's capital markets system. The regulatory framework is slated to become operational in February 2027, with the Korea Securities Depository currently building technological infrastructure designed to integrate its current securities account platform with blockchain-based data systems.
When questioned about the level of demand for tokenized equities in South Korea, Otte provided the following statement to Cointelegraph:
We're seeing meaningful institutional interest in South Korea, particularly around tokenization as infrastructure for connecting Korean capital markets with global investors... The opportunity isn't simply to create tokenized versions of Korean equities, but to build infrastructure that can ultimately expand how those equities are distributed internationally while preserving the rights and protections of the underlying securities.
The market for tokenized stocks has experienced significant growth throughout 2026, achieving approximately $3.2 billion in distributed value by the end of September, based on data from RWA.xyz. Nevertheless, the marketplace continues to be dominated by tokenized representations of United States equities and exchange-traded funds, with notable examples including equity shares in Strategy, Circle, Nvidia and Tesla, alongside prominent US stock exchange-traded funds.
