Korea’s Institutions Battle for Control of Crypto Infrastructure Ahead of Regulation

South Korea’s crypto market is entering a new phase of institution-led restructuring, as banks, brokerages, card companies and fintech firms move beyond headline-grabbing MOUs and begin competing for control of the infrastructure that could define the next regulated era of digital assets.

In a recent report, Tiger Research said domestic players are now fighting on three main fronts—'stablecoins', 'security token offerings (STOs)', and 'custody'—while a parallel battle is unfolding over exchange ownership. The driver is clear: whoever secures the distribution rails and customer touchpoints before regulation fully crystallizes could shape not only market share, but also the standards regulators ultimately adopt.

The report, which tracked 150 institutions and 196 cooperative relationships in Korea’s digital asset ecosystem, argues the market remains a multipolar contest with no single dominant hub. Rather than one winner consolidating the stack, competing alliances are forming across traditional finance and blockchain infrastructure providers, each trying to lock in favorable positioning ahead of legislative clarity.

Exchanges become the new strategic battleground

The most visible shift is the rush by traditional financial institutions to acquire stakes in crypto exchanges—assets increasingly seen as more than fee-generating trading venues. Tiger Research noted that exchanges are being re-rated as future 'front-end' platforms where stablecoins, tokenized securities, custody services, and real-world-asset (RWA) products may eventually be distributed.

According to the report, Hana Bank has announced plans to acquire a 6.55% stake in Dunamu, the operator of Upbit, in a deal valued at roughly 1 trillion won (about $730 million). Hanwha Investment & Securities has also resolved to acquire an additional 3.90% stake. Samsung Securities, Samsung SDS, and Samsung Card have separately disclosed plans to purchase a combined 4.0% stake.

Elsewhere, Mirae Asset Consulting signed an agreement to acquire a 92.06% stake in Korbit. Market talk has also circulated around discussions involving Korea Investment & Securities and global exchange OKX regarding a potential joint acquisition of Coinone.

Tiger Research framed the exchange stake race as a form of pre-regulation land grab—an attempt to indirectly secure access to VASP-related licensing, liquidity, and customer networks. In that sense, today’s equity deals are less about immediate cash flows and more about who will control the consumer interface for digital asset finance once rules and interoperable products mature.

STOs: consortia take shape, but market plumbing is still incomplete

On the STO front, Tiger Research said legal groundwork is still evolving, while productization and distribution infrastructure remain under construction. The report described Korea’s STO ecosystem as coalescing around two poles: a Koscom-led consortium pursuing issuance and trading standards by integrating 11 securities firms into its platform, and a Shinhan Investment Corp-led alliance focused on fractional investment and end-to-end issuance-to-distribution capabilities.

Shinhan Investment Corp, working with Lambda256, has launched an alliance platform called PULSE and has moved to formalize account-integration services—an effort to strengthen a proprietary pipeline rather than relying on a shared industry backbone.

Mirae Asset Securities, meanwhile, is taking a more global route, seeking to engage with evolving standards through overseas hubs such as Hong Kong and the U.S., rather than waiting for domestic frameworks to fully settle.

Stablecoins: technology progresses faster than legislation

Tiger Research said stablecoins are where institutional ambition is expanding most rapidly—but also where policy uncertainty is the biggest constraint. Kakao’s ecosystem, spanning KakaoTalk, KakaoBank, and KakaoPay, has reportedly formed a joint task force to pursue a 'super wallet' concept covering stablecoins, cryptoassets, and local-currency digital initiatives. The group has also been testing distribution and payment flows for Tether (USDT) on Kaia-based infrastructure, according to the report.

Shinhan Card is experimenting with Solana (SOL)-based collaboration aimed at migrating card payment processes onto blockchain rails. Dunamu is reviewing a won-pegged stablecoin initiative using GIWA, while Bithumb is prioritizing distribution channels for U.S. dollar stablecoins through partnerships with firms such as Circle, Tiger Research said.

The central bottleneck is the unresolved question of who can issue. The Bank of Korea has argued in favor of a so-called '51% rule'—that only consortia with majority bank ownership should be allowed to issue stablecoins—while other stakeholders are pushing to open issuance to fintech players as well. As a result, firms are accelerating PoCs and partnership announcements, but full commercial launches remain slow.

Tiger Research suggested that once final guidance lands, the winners are likely to be those with the densest consumer distribution and payment infrastructure—especially in a market where everyday utility, not speculative trading, is expected to determine scale for stablecoin adoption.

Custody: operational progress, but institutional capital has not arrived at scale

Custody is described as the most operationally advanced of the three fronts, with multiple consortia already live. KODA, jointly established by KB Kookmin Bank, Hashed, and Haechi Labs, later brought in investors including Hanwha Investment & Securities, IBK Capital, and Kyobo Securities. KDAC is structured around major shareholders such as Shinhan Bank and NH Nonghyup Bank. BDACS is focused on expanding custody and payments infrastructure through cooperation with Woori Bank and partnerships with global digital asset infrastructure firms.

BitGo Korea, backed by BitGo’s global custody technology, has built a domestic foothold with equity participation from Hana Financial Group and SK Telecom, the report added.

Yet Tiger Research cautioned that profitability remains challenging because the large-scale inflow of institutional capital has not followed infrastructure buildout. In other words, the gateway exists, but the traffic has not reached the volumes needed to sustain robust margins—underscoring that Korea is still in an 'infrastructure first' stage.

Strategic vulnerability: reliance on foreign infrastructure

A deeper issue flagged by the report is Korea’s dependence on overseas technology stacks across stablecoins, STOs, and custody. As the market scales, Tiger Research warned, licensing fees and operational costs could increasingly flow abroad, while shifts in foreign partners’ policies could ripple through Korea’s financial plumbing.

The risk is particularly acute in areas requiring Korea-specific design—such as won stablecoins, integration with domestic corporate bank accounts, and potential touchpoints with the Bank of Korea’s CBDC initiatives—where infrastructure must reflect local regulatory and settlement realities rather than imported templates.

Against this backdrop, domestic infrastructure builders are becoming more strategically important. Tiger Research pointed to LG CNS, DSRV, and Altus as emerging pillars. LG CNS brings experience operating Monachain and has participated in the Bank of Korea’s CBDC project “Hangang,” positioning it to build issuance and distribution platforms for banks and brokerages. DSRV, with operational experience across more than 70 blockchain networks, provides institutional wallets, payments, tokenization, custody, and staking via APIs and dashboards. Altus focuses on orchestration layers that bridge legacy financial systems with blockchain environments, alongside institution-grade network design.

Market gravity shifts from retail to institutions

Tiger Research also argued that the changing mood is influencing how global Web3 foundations approach Korea. Where earlier strategies emphasized retail community meetups, token incentives, and boosting trading volumes, recent efforts increasingly target collaborations with large enterprises and financial institutions—citing examples such as Solana’s work with Shinhan Card and Avalanche being discussed as part of Mirae Asset-linked initiatives.

The report noted that combined trading value across Korea’s five major exchanges has fallen about 48% year over year, reinforcing the view that the market’s center of gravity is moving away from retail speculation toward institutional infrastructure and regulated product channels.

Ultimately, Tiger Research characterized Korea as being in a phase where preemptive positioning is running ahead of full regulatory completion. While the landscape may look fragmented in the short term—crowded with stake purchases, technical pilots, and partnership announcements—the medium-term contest is likely to be decided by who can connect exchanges, custody, stablecoins, and STOs into a coherent distribution stack.

The report added that Korea’s long-term resilience will depend on whether more domestic firms can reduce 'foreign infrastructure dependence' and build rails designed for local rules. Tiger Research expects these competitive lines to become more visible around major industry gatherings such as Korea Blockchain Week 2026.