Pantera Capital Identifies South Korea as Leading Market for On-Chain Financial Infrastructure

Gate News message, April 27 — Pantera Capital, a global digital asset investment firm, has designated South Korea as a leading market rather than a follower in the blockchain industry, with potential to become one of the key nations building critical on-chain financial infrastructure within the next five years, according to Franklin Bi, a general partner at Pantera Capital, speaking at a press briefing in Seoul on April 27.

Pantera, founded in 2003, currently manages $3.1 billion in assets across approximately 260 portfolio companies, 25 of which have grown into unicorns. Notably, about 40% of the firm’s total investments are deployed outside the United States, reflecting blockchain’s inherently global nature. Bi highlighted that while San Francisco was historically the industry’s center, the focus has shifted to Asia, with South Korea at its core.

Pantera structures its blockchain investment strategy around three pillars: Gateways (connecting traditional finance to blockchain systems via stablecoins and tokenization), Developers (platforms enabling blockchain-based services), and Applications (services like DeFi, gaming, and wallets). South Korea is demonstrating rapid progress in the Gateway segment, with major banks exploring won-backed stablecoins and institutions actively pursuing blockchain integration projects.

Bi noted that current on-chain asset volumes stand at approximately $3 trillion, but could expand to $1,000 trillion when including real estate, bonds, stocks, and currency supplies. South Korea’s advantages include regulatory clarity, strong institutional participation, rapid consumer adoption of new technologies, and global connectivity. Pantera emphasized that tokenized securities markets in South Korea alone hold potential to reach $250 billion in the coming years.