KakaoPay Securities is teaming up with global real-world asset (RWA) tokenisation companies to build a foundation for overseas distribution of Korean listed shares and a stock tokenisation business.

KakaoPay Securities said on Sept. 29 it signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with U.S. tokenisation technology company Dinari for overseas distribution of Korean listed shares and a proof of concept (PoC) for stock tokenisation.

A day earlier on Sept. 28, it signed an MOU with global RWA tokenisation company Ondo Finance to build an overseas distribution system for Korean listed shares and to jointly study tokenisation infrastructure.

Both agreements share a common goal of laying the groundwork for overseas distribution of Korean listed shares and, based on that, reviewing the feasibility of stock tokenisation. KakaoPay Securities will use an omnibus account for overseas investors to source the domestic listed shares that will serve as the underlying assets for tokenisation.

With Ondo Finance, the focus is on expanding access for overseas investors to Korean shares by using a global distribution network.

Ondo Finance expanded its business based on tokenised U.S. Treasury products and entered the stock tokenisation market. The company said that in May, total value locked (TVL) in its tokenised stock segment exceeded $1 billion about 8 months after the service launch.

KakaoPay Securities and Ondo Finance will build a system for sourcing and custodying the underlying Korean listed shares, then jointly study token issuance and redemption procedures and systems for balance management and reconciliation between the underlying shares and tokens. They also plan to review ways to reflect shareholder rights such as dividends and voting rights in tokenised shares.

The cooperation with Dinari puts more weight on a PoC to confirm whether stock tokenisation technology can be implemented in practice.

Dinari is a U.S. financial infrastructure company that supports the issuance, distribution and trading of tokenised securities, and is registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as a transfer agent. Through its dShares, it provides U.S. stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in token form.

In August, it began supporting stablecoin settlement and dividend payments for about 700 U.S. stocks and ETFs, including all constituents of the S&P 500, in cooperation with Circle, the issuer of the USDC stablecoin.

KakaoPay Securities and Dinari plan to use the operating structure of dShares as a reference to verify whether it is technically possible to issue and redeem tokens in a structure where underlying Korean listed shares and tokens correspond on a one-to-one basis. They will also study how to handle shareholder rights such as dividends and voting rights, as well as balance management and reconciliation.

KakaoPay Securities also plans to run a joint task force (TF) with each company to review business targeting overseas retail investors.

Jung In-young (정인영), a vice president at KakaoPay Securities, said, "Starting from trading the underlying shares, we will confirm technical feasibility through a proof of concept for stock tokenisation and open a path for shares of domestic companies to connect with a broader market." He added, "As global investment demand for Korean companies is growing rapidly, our goal is to turn overseas distribution of Korean shares into a service that actually works."