Seoul Exchange, One of Only Two Licensed Platforms For Unlisted Securities, Will Exclusively Use Story To Settle Tokenized RWAs

Seoul's licensed securities platform makes blockchain move that could reshape Asian finance.

The Institutional Shift

One of South Korea's two authorized unlisted securities exchanges just placed a massive bet on tokenization technology. The Seoul Exchange will exclusively use Story protocol for settling all tokenized real-world assets—bypassing traditional settlement systems that haven't changed much since the fax machine era.

Why This Matters

This isn't another crypto pilot program. We're talking about one of only two platforms licensed by Korean financial authorities to handle unlisted securities. Their full migration to blockchain settlement signals that tokenized RWAs have moved from theoretical to operational—at institutional scale.

The settlement shift cuts transaction times from days to minutes while providing transparent audit trails. Traditional finance firms still treat blockchain like a dangerous cousin at Thanksgiving dinner—but licensed platforms don't make technology decisions lightly.

Market Impact

The move creates immediate validation for tokenization infrastructure. When regulated exchanges adopt blockchain settlement, it forces competitors to either innovate or become irrelevant. Seoul's decision demonstrates that RWAs aren't just crypto industry hype—they're becoming standardized financial instruments.

Traditional bankers will likely dismiss this as 'niche' while quietly scrambling to understand the technology. Because nothing says innovation like waiting until your lunch gets eaten before admitting there might be a new restaurant in town.

Quotes from Leadership

“Through this collaboration, Seoul Exchange has further strengthened the stability and trust in the process of building our STO exchange. We aim to become Korea’s leading STO exchange through a differentiated tokenization model centered on IP and content.”

“We see this as a landmark step in making Korea’s world-class cultural IP accessible to global investors. Story enables creators and platforms like Seoul Exchange to go beyond traditional licensing models to build liquidity, loyalty, and monetization around programmable IP. Intellectual property is the largest untapped asset class in the world, worth over $80 trillion, and with Korea now the second-largest crypto trading market in the world, the opportunity to pioneer new asset classes is massive. This partnership brings us one step closer to unlocking that value at global scale. With this move, Story will be one of only two chains powering RWAs in Korea, the second-largest crypto market in the world, confirming IP’s place at the center of Korea’s next blockchain growth cycle.”

Story is a Layer-1 blockchain purpose-built to make intellectual property programmable. Backed by $136 million from a16z, Polychain, and Samsung Ventures, Story launched its mainnet in early 2025 and has quickly become a leading infrastructure for tokenized IP. The network enables creators, developers, enterprises, and AI labs to register content as on-chain assets with embedded rights, turning media, data, and AI-generated works into legally enforceable digital property. By bridging the gap between outdated legal frameworks and the realities of the AI era, Story makes it possible to track provenance, automate licensing, and unlock new markets for ideas. As the foundation for IP’s evolution into an internet-native asset class, Story powers a more open, equitable, and composable creative economy.