KakaoPay Securities is planning to tokenize Korean stocks for US retail investors, working with Siebert Financial (where KakaoPay Securities is the second-largest shareholder) to enable 24-hour trading under US regulatory frameworks. Target launch is as early as H1 next year. CEO Shin Ho-cheol framed the problem as a global access gap: K-food and K-content have found global audiences, but Korean corporate equity value hasn’t been “exported” the same way. Foreign retail investors can already access Korean stocks through omnibus accounts, but time-zone mismatch has been a persistent friction point. Tokenization is Siebert’s leading candidate for solving the 24-hour trading problem, with the added benefits of real-time settlement. This was part of a broader three-pillar vision announced at the company’s first standalone press conference: globalizing Korean equities, expanding capital markets participation to all citizens, and what they’re calling “warm capitalism.” On the AI side, Shin wants an AI investment agent that knows each user personally, with a goal of bringing 20 million people into stock investing within three years (two-thirds of Koreans currently don’t invest). KakaoPay Securities trading will also become available through Kakao Bank starting August, leveraging the Kakao ecosystem’s built-in distribution. The more unusual announcements: KakaoPay Securities will gift up to ₩100K in stock to every couple who registers marriage this year, and is planning to extend that to ₩100K in stock for every baby born next year. On the newly-approved trading license, near-term focus is IPO underwriting, with ETF liquidity provider business and institutional sales and trading under consideration as mid-to-long-term expansion areas.

Circle 🤝 Kakao Group Circle and Kakao Group have signed an MOU to explore blockchain-based payment infrastructure and digital asset technologies in Korea. Together, we’ll assess opportunities for USDC and Circle’s global payment rails across payments, settlement, and digital asset connectivity.

Fireblocks has signed an MoU with Kakao Pay and Kakao Bank to build digital asset infrastructure for Korea. The three companies will explore stablecoin distribution frameworks suited to Korea's regulatory and security requirements, then run proof-of-concept tests to validate them.