Shinhan Asset Management Signs MOU with Solana for Won-Denominated Tokenized Fund

South Korea's institutional tokenization market has picked up pace as Shinhan Asset Management signed an MOU to pilot a won-denominated tokenized fund on Solana. The partnership, which includes Etherfuse, Orca, and the Solana Foundation, aims to create a proof of concept for a Korean won tokenized fund issued and distributed onchain.

The $96.6 billion asset manager is collaborating with Etherfuse to provide tokenization infrastructure, while Orca will design liquidity structures for the tokenized product. The Solana Foundation is participating as an institutional partner. Shinhan Asset Management has modeled this pilot on BlackRock's BUIDL, which successfully placed institutional money market exposure onto public chains.

The pilot targets overseas institutional investors and excludes Korean residents due to regulatory constraints under the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act. However, Shinhan's leadership aims to proactively secure capabilities that can be activated immediately upon the system's implementation in February 2027.