Kakaopay Securities signs Dinari and Ondo deals to explore tokenized Korean equities
The project targets overseas distribution but ties any commercialization to legal approval in South Korea and destination markets.
Kakaopay Securities has signed separate agreements with Dinari and Ondo Finance to explore putting Korean-listed equities onchain for potential distribution to investors in international markets. The work is explicitly preparatory, with commercialization contingent on legal and regulatory requirements in South Korea and overseas jurisdictions ahead of Korea’s February 2027 token-securities regime.
Key Takeaways
- Kakaopay Securities entered two separate partnerships with Dinari and Ondo Finance to explore tokenizing Korean-listed stocks for potential international distribution.
- A Dinari proof of concept will use the dShares model, which is designed to preserve applicable shareholder rights such as dividends and voting.
- Dinari CEO Gabe Otte said no Korean-listed names have been chosen for the pilot and there is no public timeline for a commercial rollout.
- The Ondo collaboration starts with a framework for sourcing and custodying Korean shares via a foreign investor omnibus account, plus research into token issuance and redemption.
Kakaopay Lines Up Dinari and Ondo for Tokenized Korean Equities
Kakaopay Securities is building two parallel rails for tokenized Korean equities. One rail is issuance-facing, via Dinari’s dShares model. The other is plumbing-first, via Ondo’s work on sourcing and custody.
The stated objective is straightforward: bring Korean-listed stocks onchain and make them distributable to investors in international markets. The constraint is also explicit. Any decision on whether or when to commercialize tokenized Korean equities is gated by legal and regulatory requirements in South Korea and in the overseas markets targeted for distribution.
That framing matters for traders because it pushes this story out of the “product launch” bucket and into the “pipeline build” bucket. The agreements read like a compliance and market-structure exercise designed to be ready when the rulebook and cross-border permissions are.
Two Tracks: Dinari’s dShares Proof-of-Concept vs. Ondo’s Custody-and-Omnibus Framework
The Dinari track is centered on a proof of concept using dShares, Dinari’s tokenized stock model. Kakaopay and Dinari are testing whether Korean-listed equities can be wrapped into a structure that is designed to preserve applicable shareholder rights, including dividends and voting.
Dinari’s CEO Gabe Otte said the proof of concept does not yet specify which Korean-listed companies will be used, and the parties have not set a public timeline for commercial availability. That is a clean signal that the near-term deliverable is validation, not distribution.
The Ondo track starts earlier in the stack. The initial scope is a framework for sourcing and custodying Korean-listed shares that could later be tokenized. Under that framework, Kakaopay would operate a foreign investor omnibus account to hold and administer the underlying shares.
Ondo and Kakaopay also plan to research issuance and redemption. That is the operational loop that tends to decide whether tokenized equities behave like a scalable market or a bespoke product. Issuance needs a repeatable path from cash to shares to tokens. Redemption needs a credible path back from tokens to shares to cash, without breaking custody, settlement, or investor-protection rules.
Rights, Not Just Price Tracking: Why the Underlying-Share Structure Matters
Otte drew a bright line between two categories that often get lumped together. The proposed model is built around locally listed Korean shares as the underlying assets, rather than tokens that simply track prices.
That distinction is not cosmetic. A rights-preserving structure is designed to sit closer to a regulated “token security” model, where the token is tied to the underlying security’s protections and entitlements. Dividends and voting are the obvious examples, but the bigger point is that the wrapper is being designed to survive contact with securities law.
The timing backdrop is doing a lot of work here. South Korea’s National Assembly approved amendments in January 2026 recognizing distributed ledgers as valid securities registries and permitting issuance and circulation of token securities. The Financial Services Commission in June linked token securities infrastructure development to a broader overhaul of capital markets. The framework is scheduled to take effect in February 2027, while the Korea Securities Depository is developing infrastructure to connect existing securities account systems with blockchain-based data.
Otte framed the demand as institutional and infrastructure-led, not retail novelty. “We’re seeing meaningful institutional interest in South Korea, particularly around tokenization as infrastructure for connecting Korean capital markets with global investors... The opportunity isn’t simply to create tokenized versions of Korean equities, but to build infrastructure that can ultimately expand how those equities are distributed internationally while preserving the rights and protections of the underlying securities,” he said.
Market context is still modest in size, even if the narrative is loud. Tokenized stocks reached about $3.2 billion in distributed value as of late September 2026, according to RWA.xyz, and the category remains concentrated in tokenized versions of US equities and ETFs, including Strategy, Circle, Nvidia, Tesla, and major US stock ETFs. A Korea-linked supply expansion would diversify that mix, but flows usually follow distribution, not memorandums.
Catalysts Traders Can Track Before Any Go-Live
The first de-risking event is simple disclosure: which Korean-listed equities are selected for the Dinari dShares proof of concept, and whether the structure preserves dividends and voting in practice once the pilot is specified.
The second catalyst is time. Dinari says there is no public timeline for commercial availability, so any announced schedule would change how the market prices the probability of near-term distribution.
The third is domestic implementation detail. South Korea’s February 2027 tokenized-securities framework is a date on paper, but the tradable signal will be progress on infrastructure that connects existing securities accounts with blockchain-based data, including whatever the Korea Securities Depository delivers and how it is integrated.
The fourth is cross-border permissioning. Kakaopay tied commercialization to legal and regulatory requirements in overseas markets as well as South Korea, so any sign of regulatory clearance or constraints in target jurisdictions is likely to matter more than product demos.
My Read: This Is a Supply-Expansion Bet for Non‑US Tokenized Equities—But the Timeline Is the Trade
The threshold that matters is not a pilot announcement. It is whether Kakaopay can turn “sourcing and custody” into a repeatable issuance and redemption loop that regulators accept on both sides of the border.
If that permissioning clears, this starts to look structural rather than narrative-driven because it expands tokenized equity supply beyond the US-heavy set that dominates today’s roughly $3.2 billion market. Until then, the agreements are best read as a custody-first compliance build, and the practical impact stays capped by the absence of named equities and the lack of a go-live timeline.