How will SK Hynix’s ADR listing impact the tokenized equities landscape?
The hottest story in the US stock market right now is SK Hynix’s US ADR listing.
It is set to raise around $26.5B, and demand has been insane, with the book reportedly more than 7x oversubscribed.
But here’s the interesting part.
Recently, Korean equities have been getting a lot more attention, and many platforms have wanted to tokenize Korean stocks.
The problem is that Korean stocks can only be traded in the Korean market, which makes it extremely difficult for platforms to source the underlying shares and tokenize them on a 1:1 collateralized basis.
So until now, the workaround has been platforms like @tradexyz and @QFEX launching perpetual futures markets that track SK Hynix, with investors trading exposure there instead.
Now that SK Hynix is listing in the US via ADR, the setup changes.
Platforms can now source SK Hynix ADR shares through US brokers like @AlpacaHQ.
That means issuer-sponsored tokenization platforms like @Securitize, as well as third party-sponsored tokenization platforms like @RobinhoodApp, @OndoFinance, and @xStocksFi, could potentially acquire SK Hynix ADR shares and start tokenizing them on a 1:1 collateralized basis.
In other words, we could soon see tokenized SK Hynix equities like SKHYx, SKHYon, and similar products.
Korean financial regulators have been watching closely as Korean stocks start trading on offshore perpetual futures platforms.
But if tokenized equities backed by SK Hynix ADRs are launched, and those tokens can freely trade onchain and be used across DeFi, this could become a real headache for regulators.
Especially because in the case of third party-sponsored tokenization, there is not much they can do to stop it.
So the big question is:
- Will tokenized equities based on Korean stocks start coming to market now?
- And how will Korean regulators respond?
Worth watching closely.