Mirae Asset presented a strategy that views the tokenisation of financial products as a channel for distributing existing assets in a new way, expanding from familiar products such as exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to on-chain markets.

Gubin Park (박구빈), a managing director at Mirae Asset Global Investments, said at Korea Blockchain Week 2026 (KBW 2026) held at the Grand Walkerhill Seoul in Gwangjin-gu, Seoul, on Sept. 30, "We started with ETFs because they are regulated and transparent products that we can do best and that investors already know and trust." He added, "We are not changing the product itself, only the access method. Tokenisation is a new distribution channel."

He described it as keeping existing financial products intact while using blockchain to enable 24-hour, seven-day trading and broaden access for global investors.

Park said that in the course of pursuing tokenisation in practice, liquidity and distribution, product structure and regulatory issues were more difficult challenges than the technology itself.

"Issuing the token itself is now relatively simple," he said. "What was more difficult was liquidity and distribution."

He said there is a big difference between issuing a tokenised product and creating an actual market. He added that investors need a reason to hold tokens and trade them or use them as collateral, settle around the clock and connect to other on-chain services.

He said that requires linking share registrar agents, custodians, market makers and trading platforms into a single ecosystem.

He also cited product structure and regulation as key tasks, saying separate regulatory responses are needed by market because the token's legal status, issuer obligations and investor protection standards differ by country.

Park said the experience gained from launching actual products in multiple markets could itself be a competitive advantage. He said establishing regulator requirements and product structures in one market could reduce time and costs when entering other markets later.

He singled out liquidity as the most important issue. "If I had to pick just one, it would be liquidity," he said, stressing that for tokenised products to take root in financial markets, trading and distribution structures must be built before issuance.

He presented three directions for developing Korea's tokenisation market: practical products, institutional-level infrastructure and global connectivity.

He said it should not be limited to domestic STO products and that Korean investors should be able to invest in global tokenised funds, while overseas on-chain investors should be able to access Korean assets.

He stressed the need for infrastructure linked to existing financial systems, with clear rules for roles such as custody, share registration and settlement so institutional investors can participate.

He said rather than operating each country's market in a closed way, systems compatible with global standards should be 마련해 so tokenised assets can be distributed across borders.

On timing for institutionalisation, he expected a regulatory framework to be 마련해 around 2027, followed by pilot projects and then an expansion in market 규모.

"A licence is a starting point, not a destination," Park said. "Our role is to build the foundation now so that when regulation allows it, products, partners and operating experience are already in place."

He also cited mutual recognition of regulation between countries as a task to be solved to expand the market.

He said that because even the same tokenised product currently must receive separate legal and regulatory judgments in each country, a cross-country product recognition system must be established to broaden institutional participation and global distribution.

"If we could remove one barrier, it would be cross-country regulatory recognition," Park said. "If multiple countries can recognise the same product in a situation where the same tokenised product must be handled legally in each market, it would make market expansion much easier."