Shinhan teams with Solana partners to test a Korean-won tokenized fund
The South Korean asset manager signed an MOU with the Solana Foundation, Etherfuse and Orca for a proof of concept covering issuance, compliance and onchain distribution.
Shinhan Asset Management has signed a four-party memorandum of understanding with the Solana Foundation, Etherfuse and Orca to test the issuance and distribution of a Korean-won-denominated tokenized fund. The agreement, reported by The Block and a Korean regional report, is a proof of concept rather than a commercial launch.
The proposed structure would let overseas institutional investors buy a Korean-won ultra-short-term bond fund managed by Shinhan, with their holdings represented in tokenized form. Shinhan Asset Management reported about 133.6 trillion won, or $96.6 billion, in assets under management as of August, according to the announcement cited by The Block.
“Our goal is to proactively secure capabilities that can be activated immediately upon the system’s implementation, and to lead the market for managing KRW-based digital financial products,” Lee Seok-won, Shinhan Asset Management’s CEO, said in the release, according to The Block.
The test covers the financial plumbing
The four parties plan to examine customer identification and anti-money-laundering controls, security audits, blockchain operations, regulatory compliance and the design of onchain liquidity. Etherfuse and Orca are named as partners in the MOU; the public announcement does not assign each party a complete operational mandate.
Shinhan said the model is being considered in the shape of BlackRock’s BUIDL tokenized fund, but the comparison is about issuance and distribution mechanics, not about identical assets, rights or investor protections. The proposed Shinhan vehicle would be tied to Korean-won short-term bonds rather than BUIDL’s U.S. Treasury, cash and repurchase-agreement portfolio.
A preparation step before Korea’s rules take effect
South Korea’s amended security-token framework is scheduled to take effect in February 2027, The Block reported. That timetable gives financial institutions a reason to test the workflow now, but it does not make this MOU an approval to issue or sell a fund to the public.
The announcement does not disclose a fund size, expected yield, public launch date or final investor-access rules. The next meaningful evidence will be a completed technical test, a formal product filing or a disclosure that identifies the legal vehicle, custody arrangements and redemption process. Those details will determine whether the project becomes a usable financial product or remains infrastructure preparation.
