Will Jones
Image Credit: Siebert Financial
A new international partnership is bringing Wall Street and one of Asia’s biggest financial markets a little closer together.
Siebert Financial, which has a headquarters office in Los Angeles, has teamed up with South Korea’s Kakao Pay Securities on an initiative designed to give U.S. investors easier access to South Korean stocks, while laying the groundwork for around-the-clock trading through tokenized securities.
The collaboration brings together two companies with different strengths. Siebert contributes its U.S. brokerage platform and financial infrastructure, while Kakao Pay Securities brings one of South Korea’s largest digital investment communities, with roughly 9 million stock accounts.
Together, they’re launching the K-Stock Global Gateway, a project aimed at making cross-border investing more seamless for investors on both sides of the Pacific.
The companies expect the first phase of the initiative to arrive during the first half of 2027, when Siebert clients will be able to access South Korean equities more directly. They’re also exploring whether tokenization can eventually let investors trade Korean stocks beyond the country’s traditional market hours—a move that could make investing across time zones significantly more convenient.
“Kakao Pay Securities choosing Siebert as its U.S. partner is a strong validation of the financial infrastructure we are providing,” said John J. Gebbia, Chief Executive Officer of Siebert Financial. “Our goal is to help remove the barriers between global markets. Tokenization is an important first opportunity, but we see the potential of this partnership going much further. By combining Siebert’s U.S. infrastructure with Kakao Pay Securities’ technology, scale and leadership in South Korea, we can create new ways for investors in both markets to access financial products and opportunities that were previously difficult to reach.”
Kakao Pay Securities says the partnership is intended to create a stronger bridge between American investors and South Korea’s public companies.
“We want to build a global gateway for K-shares by combining Kakao Pay Securities’ technology, content, and community capabilities with Siebert’s access to the U.S.,” said Simon Shin, Chief Executive Officer of Kakao Pay Securities.
While tokenized stocks are one of the headline goals, the companies say they’re thinking much bigger. Future plans include exploring additional investment products, educational tools, and faster settlement technology, including real-time, or T+0, settlement that could allow investors to access proceeds from completed trades more quickly.
As investing becomes increasingly global, partnerships like this reflect a broader push to make international markets feel as accessible as domestic ones. Rather than navigating different platforms, time zones and market hours, investors could eventually have a simpler way to diversify internationally through the brokerage relationships they already use.
Any products developed through the partnership will remain subject to regulatory approval and investor protection requirements in both the United States and South Korea.