Avalanche's native token AVAX rallied after Hanwha Investment & Securities, the brokerage arm of the $200 billion South Korean conglomerate Hanwha Group, announced that its tokenized securities platform is ready. The launch, confirmed by Avalanche, forms part of a nationwide South Korean effort to deploy full-scale tokenized securities trading under rules that take effect in February 2027.

AVAX traded around $8.06, up 5.24% over 24 hours, with a market capitalization of $3.48 billion, according to CoinMarketCap.

Hanwha's platform launch

The platform, which Hanwha debuted in early September, has been under development since 2025, with blockchain firm FairSquare Lab handling the build. The brokerage designed the system to combine Avalanche's public infrastructure with the enterprise blockchain Hyperledger Besu, which is widely deployed across South Korea's domestic finance sector.

Tokenized securities record capital market instruments, such as stocks and bonds, on a distributed ledger. The approach has gained institutional traction globally, with major asset managers including BlackRock and Franklin Templeton issuing tokenized funds on public blockchains, and banks such as JPMorgan using distributed ledgers for settlements and payments. Avalanche said the launch positions it at the center of bringing "traditional assets into global onchain markets." Hanwha has not yet published specific details of the platform to public users.

South Korea's February 2027 deadline

South Korea's National Assembly passed amendments legally recognizing distributed ledgers as securities registers effective February 4, 2027. Regulators approved the changes to the Electronic Securities Act and the Capital Markets Act in mid-January, locking in the new regime. The timetable gives domestic brokerages roughly a year and a half to prepare systems before full-scale tokenized trading becomes legally operational, which helps explain why firms like Hanwha are readying platforms in advance.

As Cryptopolitan previously reported, the country's top financial regulator, the Financial Services Commission (FSC), plans to integrate blockchain-based issuance into the existing financial system through a three-stage rollout. The first phase covers privately placed money-market funds, corporate bonds for institutional investors, unlisted stocks issued through a trust structure, and publicly offered fractional-investment securities. Later phases will extend coverage to all publicly offered securities, followed by direct on-chain settlement infrastructure allowing investors to clear tokenized trades using stablecoins.

The Korea Securities Depository is building its own infrastructure, which will connect to Avalanche, Hyperledger Besu, and Hyperledger Fabric. Avalanche was included in the buildout due to popular demand from firms in a tokenized securities working group, according to a depository official speaking to Seoul Economic Daily. For Avalanche, inclusion in the depository's buildout alongside permissioned enterprise chains marks a notable foothold for a public blockchain in a regulated national market infrastructure project. How the February 2027 rollout proceeds, and whether Hanwha publishes platform details to public users, are the key milestones to watch.

Hanwha's broader tokenization strategy

The Avalanche platform is one component of a wider digital-asset push by the Hanwha Group. Across three affiliates, the group has accumulated a 9.6% stake in tokenization firm Securitize, making it the largest shareholder. In July, the group's securities arm invested 30 billion Korean won, approximately $22.3 million, in Digital Asset, the company behind the Canton Network.

Cryptopolitan reported in February that Hanwha CEO Byung-ho Jang aims to transform the firm into a digital-asset-focused broker built around real-world-asset tokenization, with issuance, custody, and trading handled in real time on-chain.