Table of Contents
Researcher
\[ASA News] is a bi-weekly newsletter where we share the most important news related to stablecoin in Asia. (2026.01.19~02.01)*
Written by Suhyeon Jeong
1. [News] First Korean Securities Firm to Deliver Tokenized KTBs Purchasable with USDC and PYUSD
Source: Shinhan Securities Partners with Etherfuse to Tokenize Korean Government Bonds
Shinhan Securities has partnered with Solana-based RWA platform Etherfuse to launch Korea's first tokenized sales of Korean Treasury Bonds (KTBs) that non-resident investors can purchase with U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoins. Through the partnership, Etherfuse will tokenize 1Y, 3Y, 5Y, 10Y, and 20Y KTBs into on-chain RWAs—branded as "Stable Treasury Engine - Korean Government Bonds" (STE-KTBs)—that eligible non-residents can purchase using USDC, PYUSD, and other major stablecoins. Shinhan Securities serves as the sole broker-dealer for this issuance.
Etherfuse is a fintech specialising in tokenised bonds, backed by Arrington Capital, Transform Capital, and Reciprocal Ventures. The firm has already tokenised Mexican CETES (T-bills) and Brazilian LTN (Letras do Tesouro Nacional) bonds, offering them on-chain globally. STE-KTBs are positioned to improve global accessibility to the Korean government bond market and reduce existing inefficiencies in cross-border KTB investment, where settlement delays and FX friction have historically been a barrier.
Lim Mi-sik, Institutional Sales Division Head at Shinhan Securities, said: "Institutional investor demand in the Korean Treasury Bond market is growing, and the government's inclusion in the WGBI is expected to act as a pivotal opportunity for further market expansion. We hope that through tokenised KTBs, global investors can encounter new investment opportunities and the next stage of Korean financial innovation." Globally, prominent figures in tokenization—from BlackRock's Larry Fink (USA), to tokenized MMFs by Ondo Finance (USA), Janus Henderson (UK), Superstate (USA), Franklin Templeton (USA), Apollo Global Management (USA), among many others—are actively framing tokenization as the future of finance. Shinhan Securities' move marks Korea's first RWA tokenization transaction at the institutional securities-firm level.
2. [Commentary] How Tokenization Can Unleash Korean Government Bonds to Global Capital
2.1 Suhyeon Jeong (ASA Contributor, Shinhan Securities)
The Korean Treasury Bond market is about to enter the next phase of globalization. Korea's scheduled inclusion in the FTSE Russell World Government Bond Index (WGBI) in early 2026 is expected to drive in roughly $58.5 billion in passive inflows, and the Korean sovereign rating of AA by S&P reinforces its status as a safe-haven asset. However, Korean government bonds, like most emerging-market sovereign debt, remain overly dependent on bank channels, Euroclear, and major custodians, reflecting decades-old workflows.
Shinhan Securities has chosen to unlock KTBs via on-chain channels by partnering with Etherfuse. Eligible foreign investors can now purchase tokenized KTBs using USDC and PYUSD. Etherfuse operates a platform that tokenizes emerging-market sovereign bonds (Mexico, Brazil, and now Korea) while retaining the legal and economic substance of the underlying asset. This reduces capital inefficiencies from FX costs and custody fragmentation, and opens Korean bonds to investor segments previously locked out of this market—DAOs, on-chain funds, institutional DeFi, and so on. Korean bonds can now live on public blockchain liquidity rails.
The most meaningful part of this story is that a Korean securities firm—not a startup or a crypto-native foundation—launched it. Shinhan Securities is a registered broker-dealer within the Korean capital markets regulatory perimeter, which means this is the first "regulated" on-chain sovereign bond offering in Korea. This could set the reference design for a future wave: other securities firms tokenizing sovereign or corporate bonds, and eventually building out institutional DeFi rails in Korea. That said, there are still real execution risks—whether on-chain USDC/PYUSD-based settlement can truly match the legal finality of current KRW-based KTB settlement, whether secondary market liquidity holds, and what the KYC / travel-rule surface looks like for foreign investors. Each of these will materially shape whether tokenized KTBs stay a sidecar pilot or become a sustainable global distribution channel for Korean sovereign debt.
