MOUs signed on back-to-back days with two global tokenization leaders

Joint TF to launch before year-end to build infrastructure

From left, Jung Jin-su, head of trading products at Kakaopay Securities; Jung In-young, executive vice president at Kakaopay Securities; Mathieu de Vergnes, global head of institutional business at Ondo Finance; and Kunal Patel, head of institutional business for Asia and the Middle East at Ondo Finance, pose for a photo at the MOU signing ceremony held Monday. [Kakaopay Securities]
From left, Jung Jin-su, head of trading products at Kakaopay Securities; Jung In-young, executive vice president at Kakaopay Securities; Mathieu de Vergnes, global head of institutional business at Ondo Finance; and Kunal Patel, head of institutional business for Asia and the Middle East at Ondo Finance, pose for a photo at the MOU signing ceremony held Monday. [Kakaopay Securities]

Kakaopay Securities is partnering with two leading global firms in real-world asset and securities tokenization to build the infrastructure for distributing and trading Korean-listed shares overseas.

The company announced Tuesday that it has signed separate MOUs with Ondo Finance, a global tokenized equity platform, and Dinari, a tokenization technology firm registered with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Through the partnerships, Kakaopay Securities plans to expand the overseas distribution network for Korean-listed shares alongside the two key players in the global tokenization market, while simultaneously pursuing research into equity tokenization infrastructure and technical proof-of-concept work.

The signing ceremony with Ondo Finance was held Monday at Kakaopay Securities' Yeouido office, with Executive Vice President Jung In-young representing Kakaopay Securities and Mathieu de Vergnes, global managing director of institutional business at Ondo Finance, attending on behalf of his firm.

The following day, a separate ceremony with Dinari took place at Kakaopay Securities' Pangyo headquarters, where Jung was joined by Dinari CEO Gabriel Otte and other senior executives.

Ondo Finance began with US government bond tokenization before expanding into equities, and has grown into the world's largest tokenized equity platform — surpassing $1 billion in total value locked in the tokenized equity segment within roughly eight months of launching the service.

Dinari is a financial infrastructure company holding SEC-registered transfer agent status. Through its proprietary service dShares, it distributes tokenized US equities and ETFs across more than 85 countries and regions worldwide. In August, Dinari partnered with Circle, the issuer of the US stablecoin USDC, to begin supporting stablecoin payments and dividend distributions for approximately 700 US stocks and ETFs.

Kakaopay Securities plans to use its omnibus account for overseas investors to establish a stable system for procuring and holding the underlying Korean-listed shares that serve as the basis for tokenization. Building on that foundation, the company intends to work with both partners to verify multiple aspects of the structure: a one-to-one issuance and redemption mechanism linking underlying shares to tokens, real-time balance management and reconciliation, and the handling of shareholder rights such as dividend payments and voting.

If tokenized equities reach commercial scale, they would enable round-the-clock trading and flexible settlement, significantly improving access for overseas retail investors who have found it difficult to invest directly in Korean stocks due to time-zone differences and complex currency conversion and settlement procedures.

"Global investment demand for Korean companies is growing rapidly, but access channels for overseas retail investors remain limited," Jung said. "By combining Ondo Finance's distribution network — the world's largest tokenized equity platform — with Dinari's technology, which has been proven in the US regulatory environment, we will turn the global distribution of Korean shares from a concept into a real service."

Mathieu de Vergnes, global head of institutional business at Ondo Finance, said South Korea is "one of the most mature digital asset markets in the world" and pledged to "build the foundation that connects tokenized equities and real-world assets to the everyday financial services that investors can trust."

Dinari CEO Gabriel Otte said the partnership with Kakaopay Securities represents "an opportunity to connect the Korean capital market with a broader global investor base."

Kakaopay Securities will form a joint TF with each partner before the end of the year to flesh out the operational framework for procuring underlying shares and to finalize the proof-of-concept design. The timeline for commercializing tokenized equity products will be determined after a comprehensive review of technical verification results, domestic and international legal assessments, regulatory policy direction, and investor protection principles.


jiyun@heraldcorp.com