South Korea’s Shinhan Asset Management has entered into a four-party memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Solana Foundation, Etherfuse, and Orca to explore the tokenization of won-denominated ultra-short bond funds on the Solana blockchain.
Modeled after BlackRock’s BUIDL fund, this proof of concept will focus on key operational areas including Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) compliance, blockchain operations, foreign exchange compliance, and on-chain liquidity.
BREAKING: Korea’s Shinhan Asset Management is building a KRW tokenized fund on Solana, modeled on BlackRock’s BUIDL
The four-party MOU with Solana Foundation, @etherfuse and @orca_so targets a tokenized RWA market at $36B today, projected by BCG to reach as much as $30 trillion… pic.twitter.com/XWnbGclYIB
— Solana (@solana) August 21, 2026
This initiative emerges as South Korea prepares to establish a regulatory framework for security token offerings (STOs). While the agreement does not constitute a live financial product or guarantee immediate capital inflows onto Solana, it represents an early proof point for the network’s capability to support institutional-grade financial products in one of Asia’s most closely watched digital asset markets.
Network Activity Tells a Different Story
In contrast to these institutional developments, Solana’s on-chain metrics reveal a significant cooling of speculative retail activity. According to Galaxy Research’s Solana Q2 2026 report, network fees plummeted by approximately 44% quarter-on-quarter, settling at around $50 million in the second quarter. This figure represents a mere 6% of the nearly $900 million quarterly peak observed in late 2024 and early 2025. The decline was primarily driven by a prolonged slowdown in memecoin trading and reduced maximum extractable value (MEV) activity, with Jito tips falling in tandem with base and priority fees, indicating less intensive trading network-wide. Memecoin speculation had previously been a major driver of Solana’s transaction volume during the 2024–2025 market cycle.
Why This Matters
The transition from highly speculative memecoin trading toward institutional real-world asset (RWA) tokenization could provide Solana with a more sustainable source of network activity and institutional demand. Should this collaboration with the Korean asset manager progress from a proof of concept to live, regulated financial products, it will serve as a critical test of Solana’s viability as foundational infrastructure for broader, traditional financial markets.
