South Korean asset managers are successively rolling out exchange-traded funds (ETFs) overseas that put digital assets such as stablecoins, tokenisation and bitcoin at the forefront. In South Korea, they are taking a different approach, using indirect investment by including related companies in existing ETFs.

The financial investment industry said on Wednesday that Global X Japan, in which Mirae Asset Financial Group affiliate Global X holds a 50 percent stake, listed the Global X Stablecoins & Tokenization ETF (ex-Japan) on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in February. The product invests in listed companies tied to global stablecoin and tokenisation businesses outside Japan.

The product name includes stablecoins, but it is not structured to directly hold stablecoins such as USDC. It invests in companies that generate revenue from related businesses such as stablecoin issuance, digital-asset trading and tokenisation platforms. It is an equity ETF that invests in the growth of the industry rather than the digital assets themselves.

Mirae Asset affiliates offer more overseas digital-asset products. Global X Australia runs the Global X 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (EBTC), which directly holds bitcoin, and the Global X 21Shares Ethereum ETF (EETH), which holds ether.

South Korea has not introduced spot digital-asset ETFs, but its global network appears to be widening the product lineup from spot bitcoin and ether to companies tied to stablecoins and tokenisation.

Samsung Asset Management also runs digital-asset-related products overseas. Its Hong Kong unit runs the Samsung Blockchain Technologies ETF and the Samsung Bitcoin Futures Active ETF on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

The blockchain ETF selects and invests in global companies related to digital-asset trading and blockchain technology, while the bitcoin futures ETF mainly invests in bitcoin futures listed on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) in the United States.

The domestic ETF market is different. Spot ETFs that directly hold bitcoin and ether have not yet been launched, and products that put digital-asset-related companies front and centre, such as a "stablecoin ETF" or a "DAT ETF", are also hard to find.

Still, investment in the digital-asset industry through domestic ETFs is not completely blocked. It is possible to include digital-asset treasury (DAT) companies or stablecoin-related companies in ordinary overseas equity ETFs.

Samsung Active Asset Management's KoAct U.S. Nasdaq Growth Companies Active holds Strategy, which holds bitcoin as a core treasury asset, and Circle Internet Group, the issuer of the USDC stablecoin.

The product itself is not a digital-asset ETF, but it is structured to provide indirect exposure to bitcoin DAT and the stablecoin industry.

As Strategy is included in the Nasdaq 100 index, domestic ETFs that track the Nasdaq 100 also end up investing to some extent in DAT companies. Indirect exposure occurs through index inclusion even if asset managers do not separately select digital-asset companies.

Ultimately, the difference between South Korea and overseas markets is less about whether they can invest in digital-asset-related companies and more about how far they can put that forward as a product's core investment strategy.

In South Korea, DAT and stablecoin-related companies can be partially included in existing equity ETFs. Overseas, the market has gone a step further, with ETFs that bundle only stablecoin and tokenisation companies or ETFs that directly hold bitcoin and ether already being run.

South Korean managers are also expanding the scope of their digital-asset businesses in preparation for regulatory changes.

Mirae Asset Management is moving beyond treating related companies as investment targets and has begun work to put financial products themselves on blockchain.

In the first half of this year, it worked with global RWA platform Ondo Finance to tokenise 15 Global X ETFs and is pushing to build on-chain asset management infrastructure with global blockchain and digital-asset operators. Its strategy is to use overseas units to try first what is possible within each country's regulatory scope.

Shinhan Asset Management is also preparing its digital-asset business from the stage before launching products. It recently hired specialists to handle digital assets, tokenisation, RWA and token securities (STO) businesses, and in June it signed a business agreement with the Canton Foundation, which operates the institutional blockchain Canton Network.

Hanwha Asset Management has also reorganised its digital asset business team and signed a business agreement with the Solana Foundation early this year to begin research on related products and technology. It is a move to expand again a digital-asset business that was previously limited by market and regulatory conditions.

Samsung Asset Management and KB Asset Management have also laid foundations through equity investments and existing products. Samsung Asset Management acquired a 20 percent stake in U.S. ETF manager Amplify to secure capabilities in specialised products such as blockchain ETFs, and KB Asset Management has introduced a Digital Asset Value Chain Fund that invests in blockchain platforms and related companies.

The industry expects competition among asset managers to accelerate further if spot digital-asset ETFs and institutionalisation of token securities become a reality.

That is because not only experience directly running spot ETFs and stablecoin and tokenisation ETFs overseas, but also blockchain networks and tokenisation infrastructure secured in advance in South Korea could translate into competitiveness in launching products.

An asset management industry official said, "In the past, even if you created a digital-asset organisation, there were not many businesses you could actually do, so it was strongly research-oriented." The official added, "Recently, the mood has changed as businesses such as RWA and tokenisation that can be connected to the existing asset management industry have become concrete."