The Canton Foundation and Meritz Securities today announced the signing of a strategic Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to advance institutional asset tokenization in Korea and explore cross-border digital asset applications leveraging the Canton Network.
Under the partnership, the Canton Foundation and Meritz Securities will jointly evaluate domestic financial asset tokenization initiatives, explore the use of Canton’s privacy-enabled infrastructure to mobilize tokenized assets as institutional collateral within applicable regulatory frameworks, and engage with global institutional partners on cross-border asset tokenization applications. The two organizations plan to expand the scope of the collaboration step by step as Korea’s regulatory frameworks for digital assets allow.
The collaboration brings together Meritz Securities’ capital markets expertise and active preparation within Korea’s evolving Security Token Offering (STO) regulatory environment with Canton’s growing global ecosystem of financial institutions, market infrastructure providers, and digital asset venues.
Developed by U.S. blockchain company Digital Asset, the Canton Network is an institutional public blockchain featuring sub-transaction privacy protection. Over 1,000 institutions participate in the broader ecosystem, with 62 major organizations operating as Super Validators on the Canton Foundation's Global Synchronizer.
“Our collaboration with the Canton Foundation lays the groundwork for exploring how Korea’s capital markets can be linked with global digital asset infrastructure,” said Byungha Kang, Managing Director of the Strategic Planning Unit, Meritz Securities. “As Korea’s regulatory framework takes shape, we will take a step-by-step approach to assessing how secure and efficient digital asset infrastructure can be put to use.”
The partnership will focus on three key areas:
Domestic Financial Asset Tokenization – The organizations will collaborate within applicable regulatory frameworks to explore the tokenization of traditional domestic financial assets, preparing new business models aligned with Korea’s evolving regulations.
Institutional Blockchain Infrastructure – The Canton Foundation and Meritz Securities will work together to evaluate bringing Canton Network’s privacy-enabled, institutional-grade blockchain infrastructure into the Korean capital market.
Cross-Border Asset Initiatives & Liquidity – The parties will explore with global institutional partners a cross-border asset tokenization initiative, which could leverage the Canton Network for tokenized sovereign-grade debt assets. This initiative aims to explore diverse institutional use cases for tokenized high-quality liquid assets, including their application as collateral, fostering cross-market capital mobility across global execution and clearing ecosystems, and the enhancement of cross-venue liquidity across the network.
"Institutional digital asset adoption depends on close collaboration with financial institutions that bring deep capital markets expertise," said Viv Diwakar, Head of the Canton Foundation. "Meritz Securities’ strengths in institutional financing and structured products position it well to explore new opportunities for tokenization and collateral mobility in Korea. Together, we aim to leverage Canton’s privacy-enabled infrastructure to connect Korean financial assets with global institutional markets."
