Plume, the real-world asset focused Layer-1 blockchain, has signed a memorandum of understanding with Shinhan Asset Management to develop a KRW-denominated tokenized investment fund. The fund will be backed by short-term Won bonds, with pilot operations set to run in a separate jurisdiction outside South Korea.
The deal pairs a crypto-native infrastructure provider with one of Korea’s heavyweight financial institutions. Shinhan Asset Management is part of Shinhan Financial Group, one of the country’s largest banking conglomerates.
What the partnership actually involves
The MOU lays the groundwork for testing a tokenized fund denominated in Korean Won. The underlying assets would be short-term Won bonds, essentially taking a familiar, low-risk fixed-income product and wrapping it in on-chain infrastructure.
The decision to test this in a jurisdiction outside South Korea is telling. Korean regulators have been moving toward clearer digital asset frameworks, but the pace has been cautious enough that institutions often look offshore for initial pilots.
Why Plume and why now
Plume has been positioning itself as the go-to Layer-1 for real-world asset tokenization. The network is EVM-compatible and permissionless, which means it can tap into Ethereum’s existing developer ecosystem while specializing in the RWA vertical.
The blockchain already hosts tokenized fund offerings from WisdomTree, the asset manager with roughly $100B in assets under management that has been steadily building its on-chain product lineup. WisdomTree’s presence on Plume demonstrated on-chain settlement capabilities, which likely served as a proof point when Shinhan evaluated potential blockchain partners.
For Shinhan, this isn’t an isolated foray into digital assets. In July 2026, Shinhan Financial Group signed a separate MOU with Digital Asset, the enterprise blockchain firm, focused on tokenization and digital asset management for Korean securities. The Plume partnership adds an international dimension to those ambitions.
The bigger picture for Korean tokenization
The choice to denominate the fund in Korean Won rather than US dollars is significant. Most tokenized fund products globally have been dollar-denominated, reflecting the greenback’s dominance in capital markets. A Won-denominated product would serve Korean institutional and potentially retail investors who want exposure to tokenized fixed income without taking on currency risk.
The key variable to watch is whether this moves beyond the MOU stage into actual fund deployment. The specificity of this one, naming the asset type (short-term Won bonds), the denomination (KRW), and the structure (offshore jurisdiction pilot), suggests both parties have moved past the exploratory handshake phase and into something more concrete.