Mirae Asset Securities issues tokenized dollar notes on Solana for professional investors

Mirae Asset Securities (HK), the Hong Kong unit of South Korea's Mirae Asset Securities, has issued tokenized funding notes on the public Solana blockchain. The firm said in a press release on Oct. 28 that it had completed the issuance to eligible institutional investors. It described the deal as extending structured products it already sells into blockchain-based distribution.

Six-month dollar floating-rate notes, size undisclosed

The notes are U.S. dollar-denominated, six-month floating-rate notes. They were issued in Hong Kong under Mirae Asset Securities' US$3 billion Guaranteed Structured Note Programme. A note is a debt security: the issuer borrows from investors and repays principal plus interest at maturity. The firm did not disclose the issuance amount or the rate.

The change is that eligible institutional investors can now hold the notes in tokenized form on the Solana blockchain. Mirae Asset Securities handled token issuance, payments and lifecycle management, including interest and redemption, on its own digital infrastructure. The firm said the transaction provides a scalable model it can extend to a broader range of structured products over time.

"Extending our structured note capabilities into digitally native channels is a natural progression of our strategic focus on digital assets."

Kelly Sohn, Head of Digital Assets, Mirae Asset Securities

Mirae issued, Singapore-based Marketnode distributed

Marketnode, a Singapore-regulated digital market infrastructure operator, acted as the authorized distributor. Marketnode is backed by Euroclear, HSBC, SGX Group and Temasek, and handles digital distribution of funds, structured products and credit. The Solana Foundation also supported the transaction.

"The next stage of tokenisation is about distribution," said Andrew Scott, Head of Digital Assets at Marketnode, adding that the opportunity is to connect products financial institutions already make with new institutional investors and new channels. Lu Yin, Head of APAC at the Solana Foundation, said public blockchain infrastructure becomes meaningful to capital markets when it can support the products and workflows institutions already use.

From an HSBC platform in January to a public chain now

Mirae Asset Securities also issued blockchain-based digital bonds in Hong Kong in January. It sold HK$325 million and $30 million, about 100 billion won in total, by private placement, using HSBC's tokenization platform Orion, which is linked to the Hong Kong Monetary Authority's (HKMA) bond settlement system. HSBC was the lead arranger. This time the firm chose Solana, a public blockchain open to anyone, and handled issuance and management itself.

The groundwork goes back further. In September 2023, Mirae signed a memorandum of understanding with Polygon Labs, which became technical adviser to the Mirae Asset Security Token Working Group, set up to build infrastructure for issuing, trading and distributing tokenized securities. In May this year, its U.S. subsidiary Mirae Asset Securities USA joined a tokenization working group led by DTCC, the U.S. clearing and settlement institution. Members include JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and BlackRock, and Mirae Asset Securities USA is the only Korea-based subsidiary in the group.

Plans at home have also been reported. Korean outlet Digital Asset reported on Oct. 19 that Mirae Asset Securities is aiming to launch its first tokenized financial products in the first quarter of 2027, initially considering institution-only private money market funds (MMFs) and private bonds. The launch schedule and final product lineup had not been finalized, and the token issuance and distribution structure had not been confirmed, the outlet added.

Privately placed notes off-limits to Korean retail investors

Retail investors in Korea have no way to buy these notes. According to the press release, the notes were offered by way of private placement to professional investors as defined in Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Ordinance only, and have not been authorized by or registered with Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission (SFC). The firm also said the release does not constitute an offer or solicitation to buy or sell securities.

Solana (SOL) traded at 138,200 won on Upbit around 8:30 p.m. KST on Oct. 28, up 2.3% from the previous day's close. On Binance at the same time it was at $102.94, up 2.8%. Converted at the won-dollar rate, the Upbit price was about 1.2% above Binance, a difference known as the kimchi premium (the gap between prices on Korean exchanges and global markets).