Canton Network, a blockchain platform built for institutional finance, is making a concerted push into South Korea, approaching banks, securities firms and other financial institutions in rapid succession. With the country's security token offering (STO) and real-world asset (RWA) markets on the verge of opening up, Korean financial firms are sizing up Canton as a potential next-generation blockchain infrastructure candidate.
Digital Asset — the company behind Canton Network — and the Canton Foundation, which oversees the ecosystem, have signed a series of MOUs this year with Hanwha Investment Securities, KB Securities, Shinhan Investment and Shinhan Asset Management, according to financial industry sources Sunday.
Hanwha Investment Securities entered a strategic partnership with Digital Asset in April to respond to the digital transformation of global financial markets. KB Securities signed an MOU last month with the Canton Foundation and Wavebridge to jointly explore applying distributed-ledger-based trading infrastructure to the domestic capital market.
That same month, Shinhan Investment and Shinhan Asset Management each signed separate agreements with the Canton Foundation — one focused on governance participation, the other on strengthening the international competitiveness of domestic digital financial products. Canton has also met with Koscom and other domestic financial infrastructure institutions to discuss the feasibility of technology adoption and potential business cooperation.
A finance-focused public chain linking institutional ledgers
The name "Canton" refers to the self-governing cantons of Switzerland. Just as each canton maintains independent authority and rules while remaining connected within a federal structure, Canton Network is designed so that each financial institution keeps its own separate ledger and operational framework while still being able to transact with others when needed.
Canton's design philosophy draws on European federalism, but the network's practical origins lie in the US financial market. Don Wilson, founder of global market maker DRW, co-founded blockchain technology firm Digital Asset in 2014 alongside Yuval Rooz and others. Digital Asset developed the smart-contract language Daml and distributed-ledger technology for financial institutions, then launched Canton Network in 2023 together with more than 30 global financial firms. Today, Digital Asset handles technology development while the Canton Foundation manages network governance and ecosystem expansion.
The feature market participants most often highlight is Canton Network's structure of sharing transaction information selectively based on access rights. Unlike conventional public blockchains, which broadcast transaction records across the entire network, Canton allows only the institutions directly involved in a transaction to see the information relevant to their role. Because sensitive data such as customer information and transaction terms are not exposed externally, the network has earned a reputation as a blockchain purpose-built for financial institutions.
In practice, more than 600 global financial firms and technology companies participate in Canton Network, including JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, BNP Paribas, HSBC, Citadel Securities and the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC). The network processes $9 trillion worth of tokenized repo transactions each month. Canton Network's native token, Canton Coin (CC), ranked 17th by market capitalization on CoinMarketCap as of Saturday (local time).
A gateway to global tokenization markets draws Korean interest
The primary reason domestic securities firms are paying attention to Canton Network is its potential as an issuance and distribution platform for STO and RWA products. The underlying expectation is that firms could access tokenized products issued by overseas financial institutions while simultaneously connecting domestically issued beneficiary certificates to the Canton ecosystem.
"If domestic products can be listed on Canton, the possibilities for liquidity and overseas distribution could both expand significantly," said one official in the digital asset industry. When tokenized products issued by foreign financial firms are handled on the same network, Korean investors gain easier access to those products — and the network can also serve as a channel for distributing domestic products abroad.
Real-world use cases from global financial market infrastructure providers are another factor drawing Korean firms' attention. DTCC is working with Digital Asset on a project to tokenize US government bonds held in custody by its subsidiary DTC on Canton Network. HSBC operates a digital bond issuance infrastructure through its own Canton-based platform, Orion.
Domestic banks are also exploring ways to connect traditional financial assets — such as foreign-currency bonds issued overseas — to the Canton ecosystem. Bonds raised in offshore markets such as Hong Kong are already distributed to global investors, making them natural candidates for future tokenization and network integration, analysts say.
Some observers note that if companies form dedicated alliances to exchange assets among themselves, Canton's strengths in privacy and processing performance — features tailored to financial institutions — would become even more pronounced. "Banks are in a mode of exploring how Canton can be used from a business perspective," said one financial industry official. "Canton has met with most domestic banks, but for now the demand is likely to be greater among securities firms and asset managers."
STO guidelines imminent — what it takes to succeed in Korea
For Canton to see broad adoption in South Korea, however, interoperability with external blockchains remains a key challenge. While Canton-based systems can connect with each other relatively easily, linking with other mainnets such as Solana or Ethereum is not straightforward. In private environments in particular, touchpoints with external networks can be limited, and security concerns around bridges between public blockchains have not been fully resolved.
Compatibility with domestic regulations is another area requiring scrutiny. Industry voices say it remains to be seen whether Canton's selective information-disclosure structure can satisfy the distributed-ledger requirements under the amended Electronic Securities Act. Domestic regulations have called for a structure in which financial institutions independent of the issuer make up a majority of nodes to ensure the reliability of transaction records — but Canton's default approach stores and verifies information centered on the transacting parties themselves.
Financial regulators are expected to announce amendments to STO-related subordinate regulations and guidelines this month. "The domestic framework has been designed with private blockchains in mind — specifically a structure where three or more account management institutions participate as nodes and jointly store and verify identical data," said one industry official. "Whether Canton meets those requirements still needs to be confirmed."
kyoung@heraldcorp.com
