Koscom's KoSTO tokenisation platform signs 12 securities firms ahead of 2027 law

Koscom, a subsidiary of Korea Exchange, has expanded its KoSTO tokenisation platform to twelve committed securities firms, up from seven reported roughly a year ago. The platform is designed as shared infrastructure, sparing small and mid-sized securities houses the cost of building independent tokenisation capability. Its scope covers not only token issuance but distribution and settlement, with planned integration into participants’ back-office systems and into Korea Securities Depository (KSD), the country’s primary central securities depository.

KSD is developing a blockchain aggregation system to reconcile issuance data across multiple blockchains, providing a consolidated view that confirms total issuance aligns with expectations. Koscom’s ownership structure places Korea Exchange as the dominant shareholder at 76.6%, with KSD holding 8% and Korea Securities Finance and fourteen other securities firms sharing the remainder, giving the platform a degree of institutional legitimacy that a purely commercial fintech venture would find hard to replicate.

KoSTO is expected to go live before Korea’s revised securities legislation takes effect on 4 February 2027. That legislation carries two consequential changes for the platform’s commercial case: it grants tokenised securities and bonds held on distributed ledgers the same legal standing as conventional instruments, and it permits licensed intermediaries, including securities firms, to facilitate over-the-counter trading of fractional real-world assets such as real estate and music rights. The timing signals that Koscom is positioning KoSTO to be operational infrastructure from day one of the new regime rather than a post-enactment retrofit.