Tiger Research tracked 150 institutions and 196 partnerships in South Korea's crypto infrastructure race, as banks and brokerages buy exchange stakes and build stablecoin rails. The contest will sharpen around Korea Blockchain Week 2026.
South Korean banks, brokerages, card companies, and fintech firms are competing for control of digital asset infrastructure before regulation crystallizes. A report from Tiger Research tracked 150 institutions and 196 cooperative relationships across stablecoins, security token offerings, custody, and exchange ownership. The market is entering a multipolar contest where preemptive positioning–not immediate revenue–drives strategy.
Tiger Research described the landscape as fragmented, with no single dominant hub yet. Multiple alliances are forming across traditional finance and blockchain providers, each aiming to lock in distribution rails, customer touchpoints, and regulatory influence ahead of legislative clarity.
The most visible shift is the rush by traditional financial institutions to acquire equity in crypto exchanges. These assets are being re-rated as future front-end platforms where stablecoins, tokenized securities, custody services, and real-world-asset products may eventually be distributed.
Tiger Research framed these deals as a form of pre-regulation land grab. The buyers are indirectly securing access to VASP-related licensing, liquidity, and customer networks. Today’s equity purchases are less about cash flows and more about controlling the consumer interface for regulated digital asset finance.
On the security token offering front, legal groundwork is evolving while productization and distribution infrastructure remain under construction. The report identified two main approaches.
A Koscom-led consortium is integrating 11 securities firms into a shared platform for issuance and trading standards. In contrast, Shinhan Investment Corp has launched PULSE with Lambda256, emphasizing fractional investment and end-to-end issuance-to-distribution capabilities. This verticalized strategy strengthens a proprietary pipeline rather than relying on an industry backbone.
Mirae Asset Securities is hedging via overseas hubs in Hong Kong and the U.S., aligning with global standards rather than waiting for domestic frameworks.
The fastest institutional expansion is in stablecoins, where pilots are accelerating while final rules remain unresolved.
The central bottleneck is who can issue. The Bank of Korea has proposed a 51% rule – only consortia with majority bank ownership should issue stablecoins. Other stakeholders push for wider fintech issuance. The result is a market full of proofs of concept and partnership announcements but few commercial launches.
Tiger Research suggested that once guidance lands, winners will be those with the densest consumer distribution and payment infrastructure – a market where utility, not speculation, determines stablecoin scale.
Custody is the most operationally advanced of the three fronts, with multiple consortia already live:
Yet profitability is challenging because large-scale institutional inflows have not materialized. Korea remains in an infrastructure-first stage: the gateway exists, traffic does not.
A deeper risk flagged by the report is Korea’s reliance on overseas technology stacks across stablecoins, STOs, and custody. Licensing fees and operational costs could flow abroad. Shifts in foreign partners’ policies could ripple through Korea’s financial plumbing.
The risk is acute in areas requiring Korea-specific design – won stablecoins, integration with domestic corporate bank accounts, potential touchpoints with the Bank of Korea’s CBDC initiatives. Infrastructure must reflect local settlement realities, not imported templates.
Tiger Research highlighted three emerging pillars:
These firms become more critical as the market seeks to reduce foreign-stack dependence.
The changing mood influences global Web3 foundations. Where strategies once emphasized retail community events and token incentives, recent efforts target large enterprises and financial institutions – examples include Solana’s work with Shinhan Card and Avalanche discussions tied to Mirae Asset initiatives.
Combined trading value across Korea’s five major exchanges has fallen about 48% year over year, reinforcing the view that growth will come from regulated utility, not speculative volume.
Tiger Research characterized Korea as being in a phase where preemptive positioning runs ahead of regulatory completion. The landscape looks fragmented – crowded with stake purchases, pilots, and partnership announcements. The medium-term winners will be those connecting exchanges, custody, stablecoins, and STOs into a coherent distribution stack.
The report expects competitive lines to become more visible around Korea Blockchain Week 2026. For now, the key question is which alliance structure – shared standard or proprietary pipeline – gains regulatory and commercial traction first.
For traders following the sector, the immediate focus is on exchange equity deals and the progress of stablecoin pilots. Near-term catalysts include any legislative movement on the Bank of Korea’s stablecoin issuance framework and new partnership announcements from the major consortia. The AlphaScala crypto market analysis continues to track these developments as the infrastructure race intensifies.
Disclosure: SK Telecom (SKM) is a participant in BitGo Korea, referenced in the source material.
Prepared with AlphaScala research tooling and grounded in primary market data: live prices, fundamentals, SEC filings, hedge-fund holdings, and insider activity. Each story is checked against AlphaScala publishing rules before release. Educational coverage, not personalized advice.