The institutional bar is already visible

The proposals show where the bar sits. Distributed-ledger securities records are to involve the Korea Securities Depository and at least two account-management institutions. A firm that manages customer securities accounts directly would need at least KRW 4 billion in equity, plus named people for accounts, controls and technology. Retail buying on each licensed over-the-counter token-securities platform is proposed to be capped at KRW 100 million in net purchases a year. A new licensing category would cover debt securities alongside tokenised unlisted shares and fractional instruments.

These are proposals, not a law in force. They are already enough to tell a product team what “institutional” means in this market: capital, a depository in the loop, more than one account keeper, and a retail limit that makes a meme-stock fantasy a bad business plan.