KB Securities Signs Tokenization MOU With Optimism and Securitize

KB Securities, one of South Korea's leading brokerage firms and a subsidiary of KB Financial Group, has signed a memorandum of understanding with Optimism and Securitize to bring tokenized financial products to domestic institutional investors. The three parties will use OP Mainnet as the on-chain infrastructure for the initiative.

KB Financial Group is Korea's largest financial services group, with subsidiaries spanning banking, insurance, and asset management. Each party anchors a different piece of the tokenization stack: KB Securities sponsors, issues, and distributes the products; Securitize brings the tokenization platform, fund administration, and transfer-agent infrastructure; Optimism provides the technical settlement layer on OP Mainnet, built on the OP Stack. OP Mainnet has been live since December 2021 and is fully compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine, giving institutions Ethereum-grade security along with the speed and cost efficiency their use cases require.

Two Initial Products Planned, With Broader Ambitions Ahead

KB Securities plans to pursue this opportunity in stages, starting with a tokenized money market fund and a fund built on a KB Asset Management flagship strategy. Over time, the collaboration intends to extend to a broader range of instruments, including tokenized stocks and ADRs, corporate bonds, and Korean government bonds, as Korea's regulatory framework for tokenized securities continues to develop.

The platform is being developed ahead of South Korea's first-phase tokenized-securities framework, which is scheduled to take effect on February 4, 2027, alongside amendments to the Electronic Securities Act and the Capital Markets Act that would recognize distributed ledgers as valid securities registers.

Securitize has tokenized over $5 billion in assets under management as of July 2026, making it one of the most established players in the space. Hanwha Group, one of South Korea's largest conglomerates, holds an approximately 9.7% stake in Securitize, adding a further local connection to the initiative. This agreement marks KB Securities' first public entry into the tokenization space.

Sources:
Optimism Foundation: KB Securities x Securitize x Optimism MOU Announcement
Crypto Times: Securitize, KB Securities, Optimism Foundation Sign Korea Tokenization MOU
Crypto News: KB Securities Taps Securitize, Optimism for Korean Tokenized Funds