Lee Yeon-woo is a financial journalist at The Korea Times. Her wide range of reporting includes policies, macroeconomics, stock market, companies and even crypto. She is passionate about connecting the dots in Korean finance and making it easier for foreign nationals to understand. Based on her previous experience as a national reporter, she also has a keen interest in social issues within the sector, including gender equality and ESG. Your tips and insights are always appreciated. You can send them to yanu@koreatimes.co.kr.
INTERVIEW Aptos seeks to rebuild global finance on-chain: CEO
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By Lee Yeon-woo
Korea poised to onboard faster than Asian peers once regulations clear
Aptos Labs CEO Avery Ching / Courtesy of Aptos Labs
A growing share of traditional Wall Street capital is being tokenized and deployed on blockchain infrastructure. This signals that digitized real-world assets (RWAs), including commodities, equities and currencies, are poised to become central to the global economy, according to Avery Ching, Chief Executive Officer of Aptos Labs.
"Blockchains provide a platform that is permissionless, decentralized and very, very low-cost," Ching said in a recent video interview with The Korea Times. "In traditional finance, there are many distinct systems, such as settlement and credit risk, but blockchain allows you to solve that with one infrastructure."
Aptos, a layer 1 blockchain launched in 2022 by Ching and Mo Shaikh — both former engineers on Meta's crypto project, called Diem — has positioned itself at the center of this emerging market. After Shaikh stepped down from leadership in December 2024, Ching moved from Chief Technology Officer to CEO.
"A lot of blockchains were built as general-purpose infrastructure, and we ourselves were that way at first, to some degree," Ching said, explaining his focus over the past nine months. "But now we have a very clear focus: becoming the global trading engine."
That effort is gaining traction. BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, and Apollo have accelerated the development and deployment of tokenized RWAs on Aptos, which now hosts more than $540 million in tokenized assets. The chain ranks among the top three platforms for RWAs, supported by faster transactions and lower fees.
A joint report released in October 2024 by BCG, Aptos and Invesco projected that global tokenized fund assets under management could reach $600 billion by 2030.
"We're going to see assets that were traditionally confined to private markets move to public ledgers, where the whole world can trade them," Ching said. "It’s going to be the new world."
That global shift, Ching believes, won't bypass Asia, and especially not Korea, which he sees as one of the most promising markets for tokenized finance.
Ching expects Korea's high trading volume and large base of retail investors to play a key role in that transition, assuming regulatory clarity improves.
Participants visit booths for Korea Blockchain Week 2025 at Grand Walkerhill Seoul, Sept. 23. Courtesy of Factblock
"As we start to work with larger retailers and engage with banks and large payment corporations, we’re seeing interest from Korea pick up rapidly," Ching said. "Also, the new government seems very, very supportive of crypto. I expect a very fast acceleration in Korea, especially relative to some of the Asian counterparts."
"There’s a huge opportunity here to be globalized," he added.
That optimism is grounded in Aptos’s early and sustained investment in Korea’s blockchain ecosystem.
Since its launch, the company has established a strong foothold in the market, securing early backing from Korean venture firm Hashed; entertainment powerhouses YG Entertainment and HYBE; and Iron Gray, the investment subsidiary of Seah Holdings.
The company also established a local office and formed strategic partnerships with retail giant Lotte. On Sept. 24, Daehong Communications, a Lotte Group affiliate, said its mobile voucher platform Giftiel had issued more than 5 million vouchers and surpassed 1.3 million users since integrating Aptos blockchain in July 2025.
Alongside these business efforts, Aptos is also engaging more deeply in public sector conversations around regulation.
On Sept. 19, Ching was appointed to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s digital asset markets subcommittee as an adviser — part of his push to bring a "builder's perspective" into regulatory discussions.
And the U.S. isn't the only place he’s trying to move the needle. Ching emphasized that Aptos is not simply waiting on regulators to act, but actively working with stakeholders to help shape the future of the Korean ecosystem.
"We're having ongoing conversations with our partner BCG in the region around payment networks, stablecoin initiatives, and with existing partners like Lotte to drive further adoption of blockchain-powered payments and loyalty programs," Ching said.