Shinhan Asset Management (Shinhan AM) signed a nonbinding agreement with the Solana Foundation, Orca and Etherfuse to conduct a proof of concept (PoC) for a Korean won tokenized money market fund (MMF) targeting offshore institutional investors. Solana described the initiative as a first step toward applying the digital product model pioneered by BlackRock’s tokenized fund BUIDL to Korean won assets. We believe Solana is the third blockchain that the asset manager has partnered with for a similar purpose in recent months.
Last week Plume announced a memorandum of understanding for a PoC for a similar type of fund, and in June Shinhan AM signed a deal with the Canton Foundation to participate in the Canton Network for offshore distribution. Shinhan Financial also invested in Canton founder Digital Asset.
The product being distributed is a tokenized fund invested in ultra short dated bonds. Beyond the basic blockchain issuance, the PoC will involve compliance including KYC, AML and Korea’s foreign exchange laws as well as international laws. Other aspects of the trial will involve security audits and onchain liquidity, which is where the Orca Solana-based decentralized exchange (DEX) comes in. Etherfuse is the tokenization partner, given the unregulated startup already offers tokenized sovereign bonds in six currencies, including the Korean won.
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