The U.S. venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) officially opened the doors of its Seoul office, becoming the latest major crypto investor to enter a major market where nearly one in three adults owns digital assets.
Aside from a16z, South Korea has received a wave of acquisitions, trademark applications and investments from other companies like Ripple, Cosmos Labs and Tether, who are also looking to get on the moving train.
Why did a16z choose Seoul?
a16z’s official announcement states that it chose to launch its first Asian office in Korea after evaluating the country’s technical workforce, consumer adoption rates, and competitive position across multiple industries ranging from AI and manufacturing to defense and content.
a16z first announced plans to expand into Asia in December 2025. The announcement showed that roughly one in three Korean adults holds crypto, representing a participation rate that is higher than the stock-market ownership in the country. The firm noted that South Korea is the “second-largest crypto market” globally by trading activity.
Other major crypto firms have been making similar expansions into Korea over the past two months. For instance, Tether filed seven trademark applications with Korea’s intellectual property office in May, Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire toured Seoul, meeting executives at KB Financial Group, Shinhan Financial Group, and Hana Financial Group, and Ripple signed pilot programs with KBank, a local financial institution, back in April. Cosmos Labs acquired the Mintscan blockchain explorer and set up a Seoul subsidiary the same month.
Korea is also preparing its Digital Asset Basic Act that will require foreign stablecoin issuers to maintain domestic branches if they want to distribute tokens locally. By establishing a physical presence now, a16z is positioning itself and its portfolio companies to comply with these rules before they officially take effect.
What is a16z’s strategy for its Asian market?
a16z has shared that its Seoul operation will start with crypto-focused work and then widen its scope over time.
Sungmo Park, who joined a16z as its crypto Asia-Pacific go-to-market lead when the Asia expansion was announced in December, will run the Seoul office. Park previously held APAC roles at Monad Foundation and Polygon Labs and speaks Korean, Japanese, Chinese, and English.
Unlike Circle, which has signed partnerships with exchanges Dunamu (operator of Upbit) and Bithumb while telling Korean media it would seek a local subsidiary and license, a16z does not require a license, nor does it intend to launch a product.
Instead, it is building go-to-market infrastructure so its existing portfolio companies, which span crypto protocols, infrastructure, and applications, can reach Korean users and partners more easily.
Due to South Korea’s proposed Digital Asset Basic Act, a lot of foreign crypto firms are already jockeying for a position in the country.
The firm has not disclosed which portfolio companies will be first to use the Seoul office for market entry, but Park’s mandate covers all of Asia-Pacific, so the office could also serve as a staging point for expansion into Japan, Singapore, and India, all markets a16z flagged as high-growth in its December announcement.
