DB Securities Partners with Sphere Labs to Explore Commercial Opportunities Through Security Token Offering (STO) Pilots

Editor's note: The following press release was originally issued in Korean by DB Securities on November 10, 2026. An English translation is republished here in full. The original is available here.

DB Securities (CEO Kwak Bong-seok) is partnering with global blockchain technology company Sphere Labs (Sphere Laboratories Inc, "Sphere") to identify and commercialize new business opportunities in digital assets. The partnership is another example of DB Securities broadening its base for commercialization through cooperation with global companies.

DB Securities announced that on November 10th it signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Sphere at its headquarters in Yeouido, Seoul, for mutual cooperation across blockchain technology and the digital asset business. The agreement combines DB Securities' expertise in financial investment services with Sphere's global blockchain technology and digital finance capabilities. Its aim is to build a foundation for cooperation that goes beyond discovering new business opportunities and validating technology in domestic and overseas digital asset markets, and leads to real commercialization.

Sphere, DB Securities' new partner, is a digital financial infrastructure company that provides cross-border payments and settlement using stablecoins, as well as conversion services between fiat currency and stablecoins. It is building blockchain-based financial infrastructure to address the inefficiencies of existing international remittance and payment processes. Sphere operates SpherePay, a cross-border payment API for businesses, and develops a range of solutions so that businesses and financial institutions around the world can use digital asset-based services connected to the existing financial system.

Sphere Labs operates its business on the basis of its US subsidiaries' registration as money services businesses (MSBs) with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), and it is expanding its coverage of state money transmitter licenses (MTLs) in the US. The company has treated compliance as a foundation of its business from the outset, integrating its customer due diligence (KYC and KYB) and anti-money laundering (BSA/AML) programs across all of its services, and plans to review the regulatory and compliance requirements for applying them in Korea.

Through the partnership with Sphere, DB Securities will also explore building payment and settlement systems connected to global digital financial infrastructure. Its plan is to widen the commercial scope of its domestic pilot projects and carry them through to actual business.

Under the agreement, the two companies plan to cooperate broadly across the digital asset business, including security token offerings (STOs), real-world asset (RWA) tokenization, and stablecoin-based payments and settlement. They will assess the technical feasibility of each business area step by step, then use the results to set out concrete plans that turn pilot results into commercial business.

‍About DB Securities

‍DB Securities is a South Korean securities firm and a member of DB Group. With more than 40 years of operating history, the firm serves individual, corporate, and institutional clients across wealth management, investment banking, and sales and trading. Its investment banking business spans equity and debt capital markets as well as structured finance.DB Securities' Digital Assets Business Team applies the firm's capital markets and financial structuring expertise to tokenized securities and real-world asset tokenization. The team works with financial institutions and technology partners to advance tokenization initiatives in Korea's capital markets.