Meritz Securities (008560) said on the 21st that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Optimism Foundation, operator of the Ethereum-based layer-2 network OP Mainnet, to cooperate on tokenized financial assets.
The two sides plan to examine how tokenized financial assets could be issued, settled and traded on OP Mainnet. A layer-2 network processes transactions on top of an existing blockchain to improve speed and cost efficiency. OP Mainnet, developed by Optimism, serves as the core network of the Optimism ecosystem.
Through the partnership, Meritz Securities will explore ways for brokerages to take part in supplying and distributing tokenized financial products backed by Korean assets. The firm plans to assess the business within the scope of existing law and its securities license, and to define the specific areas of cooperation in line with the development of Korea's security token rules and market conditions.
"This is meaningful in that we are examining what role a brokerage can play as tokenized financial assets are traded and settled on a public layer-2 network," an official at Meritz Securities said. "We will review cooperation plans with investor protection and regulatory consistency as our top priorities."
Jing Wang, chief executive of Optimism, said the company will work with Meritz Securities to explore what changes emerge when issuance and settlement take place together on a single open network, and what role brokerages can play in that process.