DB Securities Opening

Transcript

Today's event would not have been possible without our title sponsor, DB Securities. To open our first session, we have the CFO of DB Securities, Hyunil Jang, who will deliver the opening remarks. Without DB Securities, today's event... we would not have been able to hold an event like this today, so we'd like to thank DB Securities. For the opening remarks, please welcome the CFO of DB Securities.

Please welcome the CFO of DB Securities. Welcome again. Hello. I'm Hyunil Jang, CFO of DB Securities. With DB Securities as the title sponsor of Ethereum Korea One, I'm very grateful to be standing here today. Thank you, and it's a pleasure to meet you all. When I got out of the car and walked into Informal Square earlier, I thought, uh-oh. I got the dress code wrong.

At yesterday's institutional event, most people were dressed like me, so let me try to match today's developer dress code. Someone from a financial firm giving opening remarks to a room of builders may feel a little unfamiliar. But I came because I believe this is where the conversation is needed most. Finance holds capital and trust, while builders create possibility and execution. If good technology never meets regulation and markets, it can't be widely used; if finance doesn't grasp tech, it misses new opportunities.

That is why DB Securities joined this event as title sponsor. We don't see digital assets as a trend or a source of short-term gains. We see it as a challenge: how financial infrastructure is changing, and what better experiences that change can bring to customers and markets. Traditional finance has built up trust, accountability, and discipline. Blockchain ecosystems, meanwhile, have forged new paths through openness, composability, and rapid experimentation.

Composability means one service or technology can easily connect with others to create new functions and value. If these two worlds connect well, we can dramatically cut the cost and time of issuing, managing, and settling assets, while opening up opportunities to a wider range of participants. But great technology and perfectly written code alone do not make a financial service.

The moment investors actually entrust their money, we face far more questions. Who guarantees their rights? How can the asset's value be verified? Can erroneous transactions be prevented? How are personal and transaction data protected? And finally, if something fails, who is responsible? I don't think these questions are meant to slow innovation down.

Rather, I think they are questions that help great technology last in the market. The builders we want to meet are the ones who aren't uncomfortable with these questions. We seek teams that treat regulation, security, and UX as the first step of product design, not the last step of development. DB Securities' digital asset business focuses on security token (STO) issuance, structuring, platform building, and government and global partnerships. We don't think we can do everything on our own.

In fact, we know very well that what financial firms do well is different from what builders do well. Financial firms can take responsibility for investor protection, product structuring, risk management, regulatory compliance, and market access. Builders can make the wallets, security, smart contracts, data, and user experience that enable this, faster and more refined. But having a program written in code doesn't make financial responsibility disappear automatically.

That's why we must design technology, legal rights, and operational controls together. Our project in Busan to develop and commercialize a carbon-reduction STO platform is one such starting point. Using cash flows from carbon-cutting equipment and financial leases in shipping, we are testing whether investor rights and carbon data can be managed on a blockchain. This project is being carried out with Busan-based MarinaChain, Anam145, Waterline Partners, and other participants with different areas of expertise.

What matters in this project isn't flashy terminology. It's how the real underlying assets, contracts, investor protection, security audits, and issuance structure come together in a single service. Through this process, we can give builders more concrete problems, and builders can propose solutions that can be validated in real-world finance. DB Securities won't call choosing a particular technology an achievement in itself. Technology has to fit business goals and regulatory conditions.

Ethereum and its broader ecosystem are an important foundation, with global developers, infrastructure, standards, and liquidity built up over time. Through our strategic partnership with the Optimism Foundation, we're reviewing what role Ethereum-based technology can play in our STO and RWA business. However, the final network, architecture, and service structure will be decided after security, regulatory, and business reviews. That may be a financial firm's caution, but caution doesn't mean standing still.

We'll move by building quickly through small pilots and carrying proven results into the next stage. Today, I'd like to offer three proposals to you, the builders. First, please look at the problems up close. The better you understand what data financial firms need, where users struggle, and what risks regulation aims to reduce, the stronger your products will become.

Second, rather than waiting for the perfect answer, let's build together starting from small, verifiable units. What we need isn't a showcase demo or proof of concept, but real pilots that can lead to actual business. Third, let's set standards that let us work together for the long term. Financial services are operated far longer than it takes to launch them, and trust comes from repeated accountability, not from a single feature.

We want to build partnerships that also address security incident response, governance, data management, and user protection. I hope today's event becomes a place for some to gain new ideas, and for others to begin their first collaboration. DB Securities will not speak only in the language of traditional finance. So your technology can solve real financial problems, we will listen, empathize, and execute together with you.

Korea's digital asset market should now become a competition not over who talks bigger, but over who builds real services more responsibly. In that process, DB Securities will strive to be a reliable partner connecting builders and finance. Thank you again to everyone who joined us despite your busy schedules. I hope every discussion and meeting at EK1 leads to action. Thank you.