Key Takeaways
- Meritz Securities will explore Ripple Custody and tokenization services under a Seoul deal announced Oct. 7.
- XRP logged about $111.4M (₩151.2B) in 24-hour Upbit volume on Oct. 7, ahead of bitcoin’s $104.7M (₩142.1B).
- South Korea plans to let stocks and bonds be issued in tokenized form from Feb. 4, 2027.
The Signing
The agreement was signed at Meritz Securities’ headquarters in Yeouido, Seoul’s financial district, by Meritz Chief Executive Jang Won-jae and Ripple President Monica Long, according to a Herald Corporation report published Oct. 7.
Under the partnership, the two firms will jointly explore applying Ripple’s digital asset infrastructure to Korea’s capital markets, including tokenization services and Ripple Custody, the company’s institutional custody platform for holding digital assets. Mertiz’s executive brass noted:
This partnership lays the groundwork for combining Ripple’s global digital asset infrastructure with our capital markets capabilities. We will prepare digital asset financial services that are safe and reliable, in stages, as the domestic regulatory environment evolves.
Fiona Murray, Ripple’s head of Asia-Pacific, further said the company is looking forward to “exploring how digital asset infrastructure can support the continued development of Korea’s capital markets.”
The Order Book
While the ink dried, Korean traders were doing their own vote. Onchain analysts shared that by late yesterday, the XRP/KRW pair led Upbit’s spot market at $72.3 million in volume, ahead of BTC/KRW at $66.4 million.
The lead held into Wednesday, with Upbit’s own market data showing XRP with about $111.4 million (₩151.2 billion) in 24-hour trading value at 05:36 UTC on Oct. 7, compared with $104.7 million (₩142.1 billion) for bitcoin and $59.2 million (₩80.3 billion) for ether. At Upbit’s tether rate of $0.9993 (₩1,357), that is roughly $111 million for XRP against $105 million for bitcoin.
Notably, there was no “kimchi premium,” the price gap that sometimes opens between Korean exchanges and global markets. XRP traded at ₩1,995 on Upbit, about $1.47, essentially in line with the global price after Wednesday’s flash crash knocked it from $1.52 to $1.46, suggesting that the volume reflected active trading on the drop rather than a local buying frenzy.
What Is Meritz Actually Shopping For?
The Herald report lists the products Meritz is reviewing, and it reads like a roadmap for a Korean digital asset brokerage:
- Spot crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
- Fractional investment products.
- Security token offerings (STOs), meaning regulated securities issued as tokens.
- Trading platforms.
- Stablecoins denominated in the Korean won.
Several of these do not yet have a full legal path in Korea, which explains the careful “in stages” language. Custody and tokenization are the pieces Ripple can supply first, and both sit underneath the rest of that list.
Why the Timing Fits Korea’s Calendar
The deal lands as Korea’s rules are starting to catch up with the broader ecosystem. To this point, Bitcoin.com News reported last week that the Financial Services Commission proposed rules allowing stocks, bonds and funds to be issued and traded in tokenized form starting Feb. 4, 2027 (beginning with institutional products).
Moreover, Ripple too has spent the past week building its own Korean network. At XRP Seoul last week, Long shared a stage with four Korean financial institutions, including Kbank, Woori Bank, Kyobo Securities and Jeonbuk Bank.
