As moves to institutionalise digital assets in South Korea become more concrete, global blockchain companies are also gaining momentum in targeting the local market. Moves by blockchain infrastructure firms in particular are accelerating.

LayerZero, known for its cross-chain project, unveiled its blockchain platform Zero on Feb. 11 and held a separate briefing in South Korea.

LayerZero Chief Executive Bryan Pellegrino (브라이언 펠레그리노) also joined the briefing remotely and made clear that he intended to expand cooperation with South Korean companies, saying South Korea has a foundation in fintech and receptiveness to digital assets.

Zero achieved a performance improvement of more than 100 times versus existing blockchains based on technologies in 4 areas: computing, storage, networking and zero-knowledge proofs. It aims to process several million transactions in a single second.

It uses a computing scheduling technology (FAFO) that implements 1,000,000 transactions per second, a high-speed verifiable database (OMDB) that processes 3,000,000 state updates per second, network technology (SVID) that supports data transmission with verifiability at about 10GB per second, and a GPU-based high-speed zero-knowledge proof system.

Based on this, LayerZero plans to gradually expand Zero's scope beyond digital asset trading to various financial areas including derivatives markets, tokenised stocks and bonds, and payments based on real-world assets.

The company said partners for Zero include ICE, the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), hedge fund Citadel, and Google Cloud. Nexpace, a blockchain subsidiary of game company Nexon, also signed a memorandum of understanding with LayerZero to make cooperation on Zero more concrete.

Plume Network, a layer-1 blockchain specialised in real-world assets (RWA), is accelerating its push into South Korea's token securities (STO) market. It supported the won-pegged stablecoin KRW1 in cooperation with digital asset custody firm BDACS, and is also expanding cooperation with various communities and users.

The move is seen as reflecting the situation in which institutionalisation of token securities in South Korea is gaining momentum. Under revisions to the Electronic Securities Act and Capital Markets Act that passed the National Assembly plenary session in January 2026, token securities will be incorporated into the regulated financial system and will take full effect from January 2027.

Chris Yin (Chris Yin), chief executive of Plume Network, said at a briefing during his visit to South Korea on Feb. 12, "In South Korea, with the token securities (STO) system set to take full effect in 1 year through legislation, many companies are already preparing infrastructure," again emphasising that he sees the South Korean market as a strategic hub.

a16z Crypto, the crypto unit of Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, opened its first Asia office in Seoul in December last year. Through this, a16z Crypto supports its portfolio companies in accelerating growth in Asia, building strategic partnerships and forming communities. The Seoul office is led by Sung-mo Park (박성모), former head of Asia-Pacific at Monad Labs.

According to the related industry, some crypto infrastructure startups besides LayerZero and Plume Network are also said to be exploring entry into South Korea, targeting institutional and business-to-business markets.