The rule Coupang Inc and Tesla proved: 'Companies that set the standard define the market' [Crypto Insight]

The standards and direction of emerging industries have long been shaped by pioneering companies that proved their models in the field first. In new industries, regulations and standards are rarely designed from perfect theory at the outset — they are more often built by looking to success models already validated in the market.

Coupang Inc's "Rocket Delivery" service, launched in 2014, transformed consumer habits and triggered explosive demand for last-mile logistics, laying the groundwork for the 2021 enactment of the Lifestyle Logistics Service Industry Development Act alongside the broader rise of e-commerce. In the financial sector, the launch of K bank and Kakao Bank in 2017 brought mobile banking to the mainstream, leading to the passage of the Internet-Only Bank Act in 2018. Tesla's charging standard — the North American Charging Standard, or NACS — was adopted by major automakers one after another before being formalized as SAE J3400 by SAE International. These cases show how innovative models that take root in the market first can upend existing practices and become critical milestones in shaping subsequent regulations and technical standards.

The digital asset segment of South Korea's capital markets is in urgent need of similarly firm standards. The minimum market capitalization threshold for maintaining a Kosdaq listing was raised to 20 billion won ($14.8 million) in July, with a further increase to 30 billion won set for July next year — leaving companies little more than a year to strengthen their fundamentals. Companies that rely solely on holding virtual assets without a core business remain inherently vulnerable to market volatility. Compounding the uncertainty, real-name account access for investment and financial purposes by listed companies and professional investment firms has been slow to materialize, and the absence of clear disclosure standards continues to cloud the market.

To foster a healthy ecosystem, this writer proposes that market participants examine at least four criteria in practice. The first is the share of "substantive business assets" that underpin a company's core operations. The second is the proportion of operating cash flow used to fund virtual asset purchases and management. The third is the core-business cash-generation capacity to cover financing costs and fixed expenses regardless of virtual asset price swings. The fourth is a disclosure framework that transparently reports acquisition costs, custodians, asset storage arrangements and on-chain verification systems.

These criteria are gaining traction in global capital markets as well. MSCI's August 2026 proposal reviewing index eligibility for "non-operating companies" leads with a "core screen" that checks the share of operating assets, then comprehensively evaluates operating cash flow, cost execution and dependence on external capital. Global capital markets, too, have begun treating a company's core operating base and cash-generation capacity — not mere asset holdings — as the central yardstick.

Bitplanet's own direction aligns with this thinking. The sustainability of a digital asset treasury rests not on the size of a bitcoin holding itself, but on the real-business foundation supporting it. Bitplanet maintains its operating base through its existing systems integration business and has recently completed the acquisition of 1,204 mining units, with full-scale operation imminent. Mining serves as a starting point for building the high-performance infrastructure capabilities — dense power procurement, liquid cooling and the like — needed for demanding workloads. On that foundation, Bitplanet plans to expand into AI data centers as well as AI energy infrastructure.

The government and the National Assembly are also continuing to advance productive finance and second-phase virtual asset legislation as key policy priorities. Regulations are not conjured from a blank slate — they are refined on the basis of concrete cases proven in the field. As more companies demonstrate their strength through infrastructure capabilities rooted in core operations and transparent disclosure, meaningful success stories will accumulate for markets and regulators to draw on, accelerating South Korea's capital market transition toward productive finance.