South Korea’s tokenized securities framework adopts closed ledger model

South Korea’s Financial Services Commission and the Korea Securities Depository recently released guidelines on standard distributed ledger requirements for tokenized securities, adopting a closed structure under which the same STO product must be issued and managed on a single distributed ledger and cannot be transferred to another ledger, according to Daehan Economic Daily. The move is aimed at risk management and investor protection in the early stage of implementing the system. At the same time, the outlet said concerns are emerging that a closed structure could limit trading to the domestic market, narrow the range of markets and services available to investors, and leave South Korea sidelined in attracting global capital. It added that if the market cannot connect with global real-world asset, or RWA, and stablecoin ecosystems, the long-term competitiveness of the domestic market and industry could weaken.