Jito Foundation and Wavebridge Publish Joint White Paper Report on Korea's Spot Digital Asset ETF, Co-Authored by Eight Institutions

As South Korea advances its regulatory framework for spot digital asset ETFs and moves toward a tokenized securities market, eight institutions present a joint analysis of what it takes to bring these products to market.

SEOUL, September 28, 2026 – Jito Foundation and Wavebridge, alongside the other six institutions, today released the coalition's inaugural Digital Asset ETF Industry Report ahead of Bridge Seoul 2026, Wavebridge's institutional conference held during the annual Korea Blockchain Week. The report is the first joint analysis produced by eight institutions representing every layer of the digital asset ETF product stack in Korea, from index construction and custody to staking infrastructure and regulatory counsel. Wavebridge and Jito Foundation brought together the eight contributing institutions, which also includes Meritz Securities, Hanwha Asset Management, FnGuide, KODA, Solana Company, and Shin & Kim.

Korea’s Regulatory Opening / Market Context

South Korea is one of the world's most consequential digital asset markets, with 10.7 million eligible crypto traders generating an average of $4.39 billion in daily trading volume. The country is now moving with speed toward institutional-grade product development. In September 2026, the financial regulator announced plans to launch a tokenized securities market by February 2027. Under the government's 2026 Second-Half Economic Growth Strategy, the Financial Services Commission plans to revise the Capital Markets Act to recognize virtual assets as eligible underlying assets for ETFs. The Digital Asset Basic Act, expected to take shape in the September legislative session, will address stablecoin issuance, VASP licensing, and the broader framework for digital asset investment products.

Institutional activity has accelerated rapidly as Korean banks and securities firms respond to the government's direction, acquiring exchange equity and moving to establish standards across stablecoins, tokenization, and custody. What has been missing is coordination across the full product stack.This white paper was created to address that gap.

The Report 

The Digital Asset ETF Industry Report is the institutions' joint analysis, designed to give Korean institutions, regulators, and international partners a shared analytical foundation as the market moves from pilot programs toward production-scale products. It examines how digital asset ETFs can be structured, issued, and distributed within South Korea's regulatory environment, and offers a joint roadmap from the institutions best positioned to build them.

"Korea is opening its markets to institutional digital assets faster than almost anywhere in the world, but the infrastructure to build these products has been fragmented. This report changes that. By bringing the full stack together, from index construction to custody, staking, and regulatory counsel, we are making sure that when the regulatory framework lands, Korea is ready to build on day one. At the same time, JitoSOL is gaining progressive adoption in the US and European markets as it delivers genuine, network-generated yield in a form institutions can hold and deploy within a regulated framework." said Marc Liew, Head of APAC at Jito Foundation.

"The institutional demand for digital asset products in Korea is real, and the pace of regulatory movement is unlike anything we have seen in this market before. As a prime broker sitting at the center of institutional flows, we initiated this collaboration because the pieces to serve that demand have been scattered. This report is the first step in turning that vision into products that Korea's institutions can actually bring to market," said Jongwook Oh, CEO at Wavebridge.

A Full-Stack Coalition

The working group brings together eight organizations, each contributing the perspective from a distinct layer of the digital asset product lifecycle:

• Jito Foundation, pioneering Solana liquid staking and JitoSOL ETF infrastructure to maximize yield and network efficiency.
• Wavebridge, delivers institutional-grade crypto prime brokerage and digital asset management solutions for traditional finance.
• Hanwha Asset Management, leading ETF issuer bridging the gap between traditional capital and innovative digital asset portfolios.
• Solana Company (Nasdaq: HSDT), powers the ecosystem with high-performance institutional staking and validator infrastructure designed for massive scalability. 
• Meritz Securities,  responsible for managing the creation and redemption of shares for an ETF product in South Korea, maintaining sufficient market liquidity to ensure that the ETF’s market trading price stays tightly aligned with its underlying net asset value (NAV).
• FnGuide, South Korea's premier financial index provider, supplies the benchmark data necessary to structure transparent digital asset products. 
• KODA (Korea Digital Asset) is a trusted institutional digital asset custodian jointly established by KB Kookmin Bank, one of Korea’s largest commercial banks, and Hashed. It securely safekeeps and manages digital assets for corporations and institutional investors under a financial institution–grade security and internal control framework. 
• Shin & Kim, provides expert regulatory guidance to navigate South Korea's compliance landscape and ensure secure institutional adoption.  

Jito's Role

Jito Foundation operates JitoSOL, the largest liquid staking token on Solana. As Korean institutions evaluate how staking rewards can sit within regulated investment products, Jito's infrastructure offers a proven model to integrate those rewards into said products. 

Three of Jito’s existing Korean relationships now sit within the working group. Jito signed an MOU with Hanwha Asset Management to explore a JitoSOL exchange-traded product, and in April 2026, reached an agreement with KODA to develop institutional custody and staking pathways for the Korean market. Meanwhile, Jito announced a partnership with Wavebridge in July to co-organize this report, formalizing that work and extending it across the full product stack. 

Wavebridge's Role

Wavebridge is an institutional digital asset prime broker and custody infrastructure provider, connecting traditional financial institutions to digital asset markets. In a spot ETF, the ability to source underlying assets across domestic and overseas venues and to hedge the resulting inventory risk is what allows authorized participants and liquidity providers to function — a role the report identifies as essential to making the product work in Korea.

Together with Jito Foundation, Wavebridge initiated and coordinated this report, helping bring together the eight institutions across the full product stack — from index construction and custody to staking and regulatory counsel — so that the conditions each institution identified could be examined as a single, connected picture. The report is the first step in turning that analysis into products Korea's institutions can bring to market.

The Digital Asset ETF Industry Report is now available at

EN: https://insights.wavebridge.com/yeongmun-etf-gongdong-ripoteu/

KR: https://insights.wavebridge.com/gugmun-etf-gongdong-ripoteu-weonbon/

Further details on the working group's roadmap will be presented at Korea Blockchain Week.

About Jito Foundation

The Jito Foundation coordinates ecosystem activities and accelerates the adoption of Jito's innovative technologies under the direction of the Jito DAO. By driving governance proposals, distributing grants, and forging strategic partnerships, the Foundation empowers stakeholders to shape the future of Jito's decentralized infrastructure. Through transparent, community-driven initiatives, the Jito Foundation ensures the sustained growth and resilience of Solana's DeFi ecosystem, benefiting validators, stakers, and the broader community. Learn more at jito.network.

About Wavebridge

Founded in 2018, Wavebridge is a digital-asset infrastructure company whose virtual-asset service provider (VASP) notification was accepted by Korea's Financial Intelligence Unit (KoFIU) in December 2024, and which obtained ISMS certification in June 2025. It operates institutional-grade custody, OTC brokerage, and is developing stablecoin conversion and settlement infrastructure.