Global tokenized stocks jump 273%, while South Korea lags on STO legislation

Tokenized stocks and bonds traded on blockchain-based capital markets are expanding rapidly worldwide, while South Korea has yet to begin legislative discussions on the issue and is falling further behind the global market, Digital Times reported. The global market capitalization of tokenized stocks stood at $2.51 billion as of Aug. 4, up 273.37% from $673.01 million at the start of this year, according to the report. In contrast, South Korea is set to implement amendments to the Capital Markets Act and the Electronic Securities Act in February next year, but discussions on the bills and detailed subordinate regulations by South Korean financial authorities remain entirely focused on issuance and distribution systems for non-standard assets, or fractional investments, such as real estate, art, music copyrights and patent rights, which have been difficult to securitize in traditional capital markets. The report added that South Korea’s domestic capital market remains in a legislative vacuum for the tokenization of standard securities such as stocks and bonds, with no related bill even introduced in the National Assembly to provide a legal basis for 24-hour trading and distributed-ledger settlement.