Summary
Koscom’s KoSTO is being prepared as shared issuance infrastructure for 12 brokerages ahead of the token securities regime taking effect in February 2027. The key question is not simply whether the token securities market opens, but whether it can reduce the burden of individual system investment for brokerages and bring forward actual issuance volumes.
Token securities are financial infrastructure that allows rights to real-world and non-standard assets such as real estate, artworks, and accounts receivable to be split, issued, and traded in electronic securities form. Even if the regulatory framework opens, the market will develop slowly if issuance, custody, and ledger-management costs remain high.
What Happened
According to Maeil Business Newspaper’s securities coverage, Koscom is preparing to operate KoSTO in line with the token securities regime scheduled for February 2027. KoSTO is a token securities issuance platform that can be jointly used by 12 brokerages.
For financial-stock investors, this news is not simply about the launch of a new platform. If each brokerage builds its own token securities issuance system, fixed costs arise upfront. The shared issuance hub model spreads those fixed costs and enables even small and mid-sized brokerages to enter the issuance race.
The market has already treated token securities as a long-running theme. What is still less reflected in prices is the actual number of issuances and the fee pool after the regime takes effect. It is too early to raise brokerage earnings estimates on platform-building headlines alone, but a reduction in infrastructure bottlenecks is clearly a change in assumptions.
Structural Background
The bottleneck for token securities is not demand, but trust and regulation. For fractional-investment assets, if rights relationships, investor protection, and ledger management are unstable, they become dispute-prone products rather than financial products. For brokerages, issuance, recordkeeping, and post-issuance management frameworks therefore matter more than blockchain technology itself.
This is where KoSTO’s significance emerges. Shared infrastructure lowers individual brokerages’ initial investment costs and standardizes the issuance process. Standardization creates speed. Speed creates outstanding issuance balances, and only when those balances accumulate do brokerage, trading, and management fees flow into the income statement.
Impact on Stocks (Tickers) and Industry Sector
- Koscom: Although it is an unlisted infrastructure operator, it is the central player in this issue. If KoSTO establishes itself as an actual issuance platform, its centrality in digital infrastructure for the securities industry will increase.
- Mirae Asset Securities: Large brokerages have both product-sourcing capabilities and retail distribution networks. Once shared infrastructure is in place, competition to secure issuance products becomes more important than investing in proprietary platforms.
- NH Investment & Securities: Brokerages with broad wealth-management client bases have room to add token securities as an alternative-investment product line. However, investor suitability reviews and sales regulations will limit the pace of fee expansion.
- Korea Investment Holdings: Financial holding companies centered on securities subsidiaries may attract expectations for new fee sources. Until issuance volumes are confirmed after the regime takes effect, this is closer to option value than a valuation re-rating.
- Kiwoom Securities: Its strength in online retail is favorable for the spread of small-ticket investment products. Conversely, if token securities are classified as high-risk alternative investments, mass-market trading volume could expand more slowly than expected.
Bullish vs. Bearish Scenarios
The bullish scenario is straightforward. If the 12 brokerages using KoSTO quickly build issuance track records after the regime takes effect in February 2027, the market will reassess token securities not as a theme but as a fee business. In particular, if assets that are difficult to package into existing public-offering products, such as real estate, cultural content, and unlisted assets, are issued in a standardized way, brokerages’ product lineups will broaden.
The bearish scenario also starts with regulation rather than numbers. If investor protection measures are designed stringently, eligible buyers and investment limits will narrow, and trading volume may not grow sufficiently even with an issuance platform in place. If token securities-related stocks rise first but actual outstanding issuance balances fail to follow, multiples will come under pressure again. What the market will price in is not the platform name, but repeatable revenue.
Investor Action Points
- Around the February 2027 implementation of the regime, investors should confirm the actual list of the 12 brokerages participating in KoSTO and the types of products being issued.
- Investors should watch whether the first issuance cases come from real estate, artworks, or accounts receivable. Investor bases and fee rates will differ by asset class.
- Investors should check whether token securities-related fees are separately mentioned in brokerage earnings releases. If they do not appear in profit-and-loss items, the theme’s lifespan will be short.
- Investment limits, the permitted scope of secondary-market trading, and investor protection rules set by financial regulators will determine the speed of the bullish scenario.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Koscom’s KoSTO?
Koscom’s KoSTO is a token securities issuance platform being prepared for joint use by 12 brokerages in line with the token securities regime taking effect in February 2027. It is primarily shared infrastructure designed to reduce the burden on individual brokerages of building separate issuance systems.
Why do token securities-related stocks move?
Token securities-related stocks react to expectations that brokerages could generate new issuance, trading, and management fees after the regime takes effect. For share-price momentum to continue, however, actual issuance counts and balance growth must be confirmed, not just platform construction.
When does the token securities regime take effect?
According to Maeil Business Newspaper’s securities coverage, the token securities regime is scheduled to take effect in February 2027. Ahead of the implementation date, investors should also monitor KoSTO-participating brokerages, the first issuing asset classes, and financial regulators’ sales and trading rules.
Mirae Asset Securities Viewed Through Real-Time Data
The recent closing price of Mirae Asset Securities is 35,900 won (-1.10% vs. the previous day), and the signal light combining foreign investors and institutional investors supply-demand (order flow), news, and momentum is 🟢 Buy bias. Foreign investors, institutional investors, and news are positive, making it worth attention.
- ▲ Supply-demand (order flow) continuity — foreign investors net bought for 7 consecutive days (+6.9 billion won)
- ▲ Dual buying — foreign investors +6.9 billion won · institutional investors +900 million won bought together
Recent related news is favorable, with 1 positive catalyst and 0 negative catalysts.
※ Market prices and foreign investors/institutional investors supply-demand (order flow) data are provided by Korea Investment & Securities (KIS) and are based on the time of publication.
This article is automatically summarized and analyzed based on the original news report. View original article (Maeil Business Newspaper Securities)
