Last week at Korea Blockchain Week (KBW 2026) was a clear reflection of where the industry sits today: improving sentiment, rising institutional participation, and real adoption. Here are our key takeaways after a week in Seoul.
Tokenization
South Korea's STO framework goes live in early 2027, and bank and institutional presence at KBW rose sharply from last year. Growth is coming from two directions: natively on onchain platforms, and through partnerships with large consumer apps, such as Ondo's work with Kakao.
The starting point is lower-volatility assets like ETFs and money market funds. Institutions are also exploring DeFi utility for these assets, mainly staking and lending onchain through protocols such as Morpho and Aave.
AML/KYC is the main risk on institutions' minds. If sanctioned wallets end up holding a meaningful share of a tokenized asset, it reflects poorly on the whole category. There is currently a gap in onchain screening, and we are watching to see who steps up to fill it.
Neobanks
Localized neobanks with country-specific go-to-market strategies are emerging. Funds are actively looking but are more selective about where they deploy. Strong core business metrics and a regulatory moat remain essential.
Stablecoins
Banks and institutions are asking for non-USD stablecoins, particularly JPY and KRW. They see stablecoins as an easy way to onboard retail users. Once users hold stables, they have an easy path into tokenized assets, which can be bought directly with stablecoins.
Perps
The number of perp DEXs has exploded, yet volume remains concentrated in a few leaders such as Hyperliquid, Lighter, and Variational. Institutional capital will gather at the top, and with venues that benefit from regulatory arbitrage.
Decentralization is not high on most users' priority lists. Self-custody and privacy are, because users do not want to be hunted or front-run.
Agentic trading terminals are still early. The open question is: if everyone runs the same tools, where does the alpha come from?
Marketing Campaigns
South Korea remains one of crypto's strongest retail bases, and teams are localizing to match. Examples include Plasma's cashback offers on Olive Young purchases and Frontier's live trading competitions, which draw real crowds. Teams are putting more thought into real-world campaigns that users actually want to join.
What's Next
The DWF Labs team will be at TOKEN2049 Singapore for the entire week. We are always looking to meet teams building in the space, and our DMs are open.
You can connect with us here.