Digital Asset CEO Yuval Rooz put financial institutions’ actual use of blockchain at the centre of his RealFi X Asia discussion in Seoul on October 1.
His argument was that clear rules are necessary, but do not by themselves create a market. Japan provided his example: regulatory clarity preceded wider adoption, while involvement from large banks and Japan Securities Clearing Corporation in collateral management helped encourage other institutions to participate.
For Korea, Rooz pointed to consumers already comfortable with digital assets, new financial technology and overseas equities. He expects that familiarity to support faster adoption if regulation and institutional participation advance together. That is his outlook, not an announced Korean deployment.
He also urged a different measure of progress: how much assets are actually moving and being used, rather than simply how much has been tokenized. Institutions need an immediate economic reason to adopt a service, not only a promise of returns years later.
The panel at Andaz Seoul Gangnam also included a16z crypto’s Maggie Hsu and LayerZero’s Lim Jong-gyu. Payroll, remittances and treasury management featured in the broader discussion of services people and businesses would keep using beyond a market cycle.
