DSRV, a South Korean blockchain infrastructure company, is taking on Wall Street with blockchain technology built up in Korea. The company believes the market will be rebuilt around on-chain finance and that the shift will open new global demand.
Kim Ji-yoon, co-CEO of DSRV, told The Seoul Economic Daily on the 3rd that the company came to New York to test whether its business experience and technology from Korea and Japan work in the United States. "We will build a service that handles cross-border payments by connecting the Korean, U.S. and Japanese markets, and show what the future of finance looks like," Kim said.
Kim is convinced finance will be rebuilt around on-chain systems. "In 10 years, banks will share only the name with what we have now. They will be an entirely different concept," Kim said. "Just as viewers pick the content they want on streaming services instead of following a TV schedule, finance will move toward users choosing the products that suit them from among offerings around the world."
Kim is focused on the potential for blockchain-based finance to connect financial markets now separated by borders. Putting financial assets on a blockchain allows trading, payment and settlement to run around the clock on a single network. That cuts the time and cost of moving money across borders and widens the path for users to compare financial products from different countries and pick the most favorable one.
Kim cited as a prime example of the financial divide the fact that borrowers in Japan can take out loans at rates of around 1%, while a farmer in Madagascar faces interest of as much as 30%. Linking financial markets that are fragmented by country through blockchain would let those seeking funds and those supplying them meet more efficiently, narrowing such gaps, Kim said.
That is why the company chose New York, where the shift to on-chain finance is spreading quickly, as its new business stage. Since entering New York in April this year, Kim has met with major local financial firms in succession to discuss cooperation.
Kim said the approach to regulation experienced in the United States differed sharply from Korea's. "My impression is that digital asset legislation such as the GENIUS Act came closer to lifting the lid on a market already full of operators," Kim said. "You can obtain a virtual asset business license after your business is somewhat under way, and getting one is relatively easy, but maintaining and renewing it is demanding."
In Korea, by contrast, companies cannot begin preparing a business until a framework is in place, which inevitably delays industry development, Kim said. "That is why there are concerns that a two-year delay in legislation can leave the actual business four years behind," Kim said. "Even just opening up guidelines — telling companies to try it with 300 users within a set scope, for example — would create far more points of contact between traditional finance and on-chain finance."
