The Jito Foundation has signed a memorandum of understanding with Korean digital asset custodian KODA to explore institutional custody opportunities and provide support for JitoSOL in the local market.
According to Monday announcementthe agreement includes reaching out to institutional investors and developing standards-compliant custody and staking pathways.
South Korea’s Financial Services Commission is expected to finalize the regulatory framework for digital assets later this year.
In February, the foundation he said will work with Hanwha Asset Management to explore JitoSOL exchange-traded fund in South Korea, pending regulatory approval. Marc Liew, head of APAC at the Jito Foundation, told Cointelegraph:
We are seeing powerful interest from two main camps: huge financial firms looking to build the next generation of wealth management products and institutional players interested in the profitable nature of JitoSOL for their corporate treasuries.
KODA provides custody infrastructure including icy storage, MPC-based key management and institutional staking, providing $20 million in digital asset insurance. The company is backed by KB Kookmin Bank and other investors and has a registered VASP license and ISMS certification.
“With KODA’s institutional-grade treasury system, the KODA interface will enable the customer to mint JitoSOL directly from their existing SOL holdings,” Liew said.
Jito is a Solana Network liquid staking (SOL) protocol where users stake SOL in exchange for JitoSOL, a token used in decentralized finance applications. The Jito Foundation supports development, partnerships and institutional activities.
According to CoinGecko data, JitoSOL’s market capitalization is approximately $930 million. The token already has institutional exposure in Europe through its exchange-traded product 21Shares, while custodians including BitGo and Hex Trust support staking directly from custodian accounts.
Related: Grayscale debuts on the Solana ETF, joining Bitwise in the SOL staking ETF race
Seoul tightens control of the cryptocurrency market
South Korean regulators and policymakers are pushing for tighter scrutiny of the cryptocurrency sector as it moves toward a more structured regulatory framework.
In January, the country approved changes to its cryptocurrency licensing system, tightening requirements for virtual asset service providers and extending supervision to major shareholders. In March, policymakers unveiled a proposal to limit ownership stakes in national exchanges to 20%, part of a broader effort to impose tighter controls on market structure.
Regulatory pressure gathered pace after a payout error at cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb in early February, when users mistakenly received 620,000 Bitcoin (BTC) instead of 620,000 Korean won, triggering a sell-off and exposing weaknesses in the exchange’s oversight.
Following the incident, the country’s Financial Services Commission introduced stricter requirements for reconciling exchanges’ internal books with balances in the transaction chain.
Earlier this month, lawmakers began drafting legislation that would classify stablecoins as foreign currency payment instruments and require tokenized real-world assets to be backed by fiduciary assets.
The Bank of Korea recently called for exchange-level “circuit breakers” and stronger internal controls, and the central bank warned that the industry lacks safeguards found in customary financial systems.
Warehouse: Should users be able to place war and death bets on prediction markets?
