South Korea's Shinhan partners with Solana Foundation, Etherfuse, Orca for tokenized fund issuance

Shinhan Asset Management, the asset management arm of South Korea's Shinhan group, signed a four-party memorandum of understanding on Aug. 21 to test a Korean won tokenized fund on the Solana blockchain, according to crypto.news. The agreement brings together Shinhan Asset Management, the Solana Foundation, tokenization platform Etherfuse and decentralized exchange Orca. The participants will run a proof of concept covering the fund's issuance and distribution process. The planned product would invest in short term Korean won bonds and target overseas institutional investors. The participants have not announced the fund's size, expected yield or public launch date. Solana said the existing tokenized real world asset market was worth about $36 billion, and the announcement cited a Boston Consulting Group projection suggesting the sector could reach as much as $30 trillion.

Background

The memorandum lands against a regulatory backdrop the source describes in some detail. South Korea's National Assembly passed amendments supporting tokenized securities on Jan. 15, recognizing distributed ledgers as valid securities registries and permitting qualifying investment contract securities to circulate through licensed securities companies. The Financial Services Commission said issuers will still need to satisfy existing securities registration and disclosure obligations, and unlicensed companies will not be allowed to broker tokenized securities. The amendments are expected to take effect one year after their promulgation, with implementation anticipated in early 2027, and regulators are preparing account management infrastructure and investor protection rules before the rollout, according to the FSC's official statement. South Korean authorities are also preparing rules for stocks, bonds and funds alongside a blockchain platform operated for the Korea Securities Depository. Shinhan has been testing more than one blockchain: on Aug. 14 the asset manager signed a separate agreement with Plume to develop a demonstration for a won-denominated tokenized fund. The parallel projects suggest Shinhan is examining different technical and distribution models rather than committing exclusively to Solana, and results could determine which infrastructure the manager uses after the regulatory framework becomes effective. Solana has already attracted other Asian asset managers, including SBI Global Asset Management, which launched a tokenized Japanese equity fund on Solana in July.

What happened

According to crypto.news, Shinhan Asset Management signed a four-party memorandum on Aug. 21 to test a Korean won tokenized fund using the Solana blockchain, alongside the Solana Foundation, Etherfuse and Orca. The participants will conduct a proof of concept covering the fund's issuance and distribution process. The planned product would invest in short term Korean won bonds and target overseas institutional investors, but the participants have not announced the fund's size, expected yield or public launch date. The proof of concept will examine the steps needed to issue and distribute a regulated tokenized fund, including know your customer checks, anti-money laundering controls, token issuance and onchain liquidity arrangements. Under the division of roles described in the source, Shinhan will provide asset management and regulatory expertise, Etherfuse will supply infrastructure for creating and managing the tokenized assets, and Orca will help design the liquidity system used to distribute or exchange the fund tokens on Solana. The Solana Foundation said the model draws from BlackRock's BUIDL fund, one of the largest tokenized money market products; the comparison refers to the blockchain based distribution model and does not mean the proposed Shinhan fund will hold the same assets or offer the same legal rights. BlackRock's product primarily invests in U.S. Treasury bills, cash and repurchase agreements, while Shinhan's test concerns a Korean won product backed by short term domestic bonds. The source notes Solana offers low transaction fees and rapid settlement, which could support frequent subscriptions, redemptions and transfers, though those technical features do not remove securities registration, custody or investor protection requirements.

Market impact

The sources provide no prices, trading volumes or fund flows tied to the announcement, and the participants have not disclosed the fund's size or expected yield. The only market figures present are scale estimates for the tokenized real world asset sector: Solana said the existing market was worth about $36 billion, and the announcement cited a Boston Consulting Group projection suggesting the sector could reach as much as $30 trillion. The source also references BlackRock's BUIDL fund as one of the largest tokenized money market products, without giving its size, and notes that SBI Global Asset Management launched a tokenized Japanese equity fund on Solana in July targeting institutional and accredited investors through regulated tokenization platform DigiFT. On the regulatory side, the source states that South Korea's National Assembly passed amendments supporting tokenized securities on Jan. 15, with implementation anticipated in early 2027, and that the Financial Services Commission said issuers will still need to satisfy existing securities registration and disclosure obligations. No figure is given for the Korean won bond market, Shinhan's assets, or the value of the parallel Plume demonstration signed Aug. 14.

Why it matters

The sources frame the memorandum as a test of whether a regulated fund can be issued and distributed on a public blockchain under Korean rules, not as a product launch. Because the proof of concept explicitly covers know your customer checks, anti-money laundering controls, token issuance and onchain liquidity arrangements, its results could shape how Shinhan structures tokenized products once the amended framework takes effect, which the source anticipates in early 2027. The parallel Plume agreement signed Aug. 14 indicates Shinhan is comparing technical and distribution models rather than committing exclusively to Solana, so the outcome of the tests could determine which infrastructure the manager uses. For Solana, the agreement adds a second Asian asset manager to its roster after SBI Global Asset Management's July tokenized Japanese equity fund, though the source cautions that low fees and rapid settlement do not remove securities registration, custody or investor protection requirements. The Solana Foundation's comparison to BlackRock's BUIDL is limited to the blockchain based distribution model and does not imply the Shinhan fund will hold the same assets or offer the same legal rights.