GWDC 2026 Korea was held on Sept. 29-30, 2026 at aT Center in Seoul, South Korea. The event was hosted by Web3Labs and co-organized by Techub News, HypaiLabs, and TokenPost.
During a roundtable discussion, Yoon Ho Kim, head of the Digital Asset Team at FnGuide, said the company is expanding its business from financial data and index construction into digital assets. He said participation by traditional institutions of this kind is itself pushing changes in the real-world asset, or RWA, market.
ETF growth and programmable on-chain products
Kim said South Korea’s ETF market grew from about KRW 100 trillion in June 2023 to roughly KRW 500 trillion by the middle of 2026. In his view, new products can change investor behavior, and that shift can produce new market developments.
He added that once on-chain products become programmable, the available investment windows, methods, and underlying assets could expand sharply. If technology, institutions, and timing line up, he said, the market could see growth that is difficult to imagine today.
Trusted pricing standards seen as a requirement for institutional entry
On data and pricing, Kim said institutional money will not enter easily without a credible benchmark. He said traditional financial institutions that manage tokenized assets need pricing references from an authoritative third party, while indexes must be resistant to manipulation and aligned with international standards.
That foundation is necessary to calculate net asset value, handle fund accounting, and build risk models, he said.
Distribution, not tokenization alone, determines whether products reach investors
Kim also said tokenization by itself is only a technology. Even a strong product will have limited value if it cannot circulate. The key, he said, is to use the distribution channels that institutions already have in place to reach more investors.