Shinhan Asset Management has entered a four-party agreement with the Solana Foundation, Etherfuse, and Orca to develop a proof-of-concept for a Korean won (KRW)-denominated tokenized fund on the Solana blockchain. The initiative ranks among South Korea's most ambitious tokenization projects to date and reflects the strong commitment of the country's leading asset managers to the tokenized finance market. Shinhan Asset Management is an affiliate of Shinhan Financial Group, one of South Korea's largest banking groups, giving the pilot heavyweight domestic backing.

Solana announced the partnership on X:

BREAKING: Korea's Shinhan Asset Management is building a KRW tokenized fund on Solana, modeled on BlackRock's BUIDL

The four-party MOU with Solana Foundation, @etherfuse and @orca_so targets a tokenized RWA market at $36B today, projected by BCG to reach as much as $30 trillion… pic.twitter.com/XWnbGclYIB

— Solana (@solana) August 21, 2026 (X post)

Shinhan Adapts the BUIDL Model for Korea

The program is modeled on the digital asset sector's best-known tokenized money market offering: BlackRock's BUIDL fund. BUIDL — the USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund — launched in March 2024 and is issued on public blockchains through Securitize, letting qualified investors hold a tokenized money-market position they can transfer around the clock. Under the proposed arrangement, overseas institutional investors would be able to take a stake in aKRW through tokenization on Solana, with the fund managed by Shinhan Investment Management. The overseas angle is notable in itself: the won is not freely internationalized, and offshore investors have historically gained KRW exposure mainly through non-deliverable forwards rather than direct holdings, making a compliant on-chain KRW vehicle uncharted territory. Shinhan emphasized that the work currently underway is technology validation and does not constitute a product release at this time.

According to Shinhan, the proof-of-concept will cover the entire lifecycle of a token-based investment fund. That encompasses investor onboarding, KYC and AML screening, token issuance, regulatory compliance review, blockchain operations, and the design of secondary market liquidity. The company aims to be fully prepared by the time South Korea's security token regime takes effect, and the partners will conduct full tests of the issuance and distribution process ahead of the country's STO framework.

Solana Expands Its Position in Institutional Tokenization

The selection of Solana underscores the blockchain's growing prominence in real-world asset (RWA) tokenization, a field where issuers such as Ondo Finance have already deployed tokenized treasury products on the network. Under the partnership, the Solana Foundation will provide the blockchain infrastructure, while Etherfuse — a startup that has concentrated on compliant, interest-bearing tokenized debt products on Solana — will contribute tokenization technology and issuance tools built to compliance standards. Orca, one of the most heavily used decentralized exchanges on Solana, will take part in developing the on-chain liquidity protocol and will support the distribution and trading of tokenized fund shares.

Building Infrastructure Before Regulation Arrives

A notable feature of the project is its timing. South Korea has already enacted laws enabling tokenized securities, which are anticipated to take effect in 2027 once regulators finalize the implementation rules. Rather than waiting for the regulatory launch, Shinhan is using the transition period to test its infrastructure and operational processes in advance.

The project will examine how tokenized fund issuance can comply strictly with relevant national and international regulations, including foreign exchange rules and investor protection requirements. The goal is to develop a framework that can move rapidly as the legal landscape broadens and more capital is deployed. The near-term milestones to watch are the results of the issuance-and-distribution tests and the regulators' final implementation rules, which together will determine whether the proof-of-concept can graduate into a live product.

A Growing Battle for the Tokenized Asset Market

The announcement comes amid intensifying global competition in the tokenized asset arena. Tokenized real-world assets — one of the biggest trends in crypto — are drawing interest from banks, asset managers, and fintech companies seeking to modernize conventional financial products. The Solana announcement itself cited a tokenized RWA market of roughly $36 billion today, with a Boston Consulting Group projection of as much as $30 trillion, while speakers at industry sessions have pointed to estimates in the trillions of dollars by 2030.

For Shinhan, the project represents more than a technology experiment.

Source: Crypto Ninjas