Optimism expands Korea push with Dunamu, Toss, DB Securities partnerships

Blockchain infrastructure firm Optimism announced Thursday it is expanding its business in South Korea, backed by partnerships with major domestic companies including Dunamu, Toss and DB Securities.

The company plans to increase supply of OP Enterprise, its institutional blockchain infrastructure solution, targeting domestic financial firms, fintech companies and digital asset businesses.

Optimism provides layer-2 technology that leverages Ethereum's security while improving transaction processing speed and cost. Coinbase, Kraken, Sony and Dunamu are among the companies that have built or are operating their own blockchains on Optimism's OP Stack.

OP Enterprise, which Optimism is positioning as the centerpiece of its Korea strategy, is a solution that allows financial firms and enterprises to run on-chain finance, payment and transaction services without building a dedicated blockchain development team.

Clients receive comprehensive technical support covering sequencers, security patches and system upgrades. Regulatory compliance standards and fee policies can also be tailored to each company's business structure, the firm said.

In Korea, Optimism is pursuing collaborative projects centered on Dunamu, Toss and DB Securities.

Optimism signed an MOU with Dunamu in May to explore ways to advance the technology of Dunamu's blockchain platform and expand its overseas business. The two companies also plan to examine domestic digital asset infrastructure business models using the OP Stack.

On July 8, Optimism signed an MOU with Toss to verify the feasibility of building a won-denominated digital financial infrastructure. Over the next three months, the two sides will assess whether the OP Stack can be applied to Korea's financial environment and examine requirements for institutional infrastructure, including regulatory compliance, data privacy and processing performance.

With DB Securities, Optimism will explore STO and real-world asset business models using Jeju-based assets. The two companies plan to examine ways to tokenize assets linked to Jeju — including smart farms, livestock assets and Korean intellectual property — and seek a global cooperation model.

Optimism said it intends to expand use cases for the OP Stack and OP Enterprise across financial sectors including securities, cards, payments and fintech.

Jing Wang, CEO of OP Labs, said South Korea has the regulatory environment and digital asset market scale to grow faster than any other market Optimism has entered. "Optimism is building the infrastructure suited for this market," he said.

Wang added that regulated financial institutions are increasingly choosing Optimism. "From Europe's Bitpanda and Kraken's 'Ink' in the United States to Mitsui in Japan — and now Dunamu, Toss and DB Securities in Korea," he said.

Optimism is also expanding its institutional blockchain business overseas. Bitpanda is building its Vision Chain on the OP Stack to comply with MiCA, the EU's digital asset regulatory framework, while US digital asset exchange Kraken has migrated the infrastructure of its own blockchain, Ink, to OP Enterprise.