Hanwha Bets Big on JitoSOL Liquid Staking ETPs

South Korea’s Hanwha Asset Management partners with Jito Foundation to build JitoSOL-based ETPs, targeting retirement investors in a $4.44B AUM push.

South Korea’s Hanwha Asset Management has entered a partnership with the Jito Foundation. The goal is to build regulated exchange-traded products tied to JitoSOL, a liquid staking token on Solana. The agreement was announced on Monday, according to The Block.

Hanwha manages roughly 6.4 trillion won in assets. That’s about $4.44 billion. The firm is one of South Korea’s biggest financial players.

Pension Money Is Eyeing Solana Yields

Choi Young-jin, vice president at Hanwha Asset Management, said JitoSOL is an asset that delivers both returns and liquidity at the same time. In a translated statement, he described it as an attractive option for retirement pension investors wanting portfolio diversification.

That framing matters. South Korean pension capital is enormous. Plugging JitoSOL into that pipeline would be a serious development for Solana’s institutional footprint.

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The partnership covers the technical integration of JitoSOL into ETP structures. It also involves validating regulated custody solutions and building risk management processes. Coordination with local regulators on compliance is part of the plan, too.

A key part of this deal is JitoSOL’s dual yield mechanism. It combines standard Solana staking rewards with maximal extractable value rewards, known as MEV. Getting that into a regulated product structure is not simple. But that is exactly what both parties are now working toward.

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South Korea’s Digital Asset Basic Act was supposed to be clear in 2025. It did not. Disputes over stablecoin issuer eligibility stalled it. Regulators want bank-exclusive licensing. Industry participants say that the approach would hurt competition and slow down product development.

Still, major financial institutions are not waiting. They are already building infrastructure for when the law passes.

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JitoSOL Is Going Global and Fast

This move from Hanwha is not happening in isolation. Last month, 21Shares launched the Jito Staked SOL ETP under the ticker JSOL on Euronext. In the U.S., VanEck filed an S-1 with the SEC back in August last year for a JitoSOL ETF. That filing is still pending.

The pattern is clear. JitoSOL-based products are being pushed into regulated markets across multiple jurisdictions simultaneously. South Korea is now officially on that list.

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Hanwha’s entry signals that institutional readiness in South Korea is further along than the legislative timeline suggests. The technical groundwork is being laid now. When the Digital Asset Basic Act is cleared, the products could follow quickly.

Whether the compliance hurdles around stablecoin eligibility get resolved first remains the bigger question. For now, JitoSOL and Hanwha are moving forward regardless.