Hashed Open Finance, a subsidiary of global Web3 venture capital firm Hashed, has unveiled Maroo, a blockchain for the Korean Won (KRW) economy. Designed with stablecoin utilization in mind, Maroo's key feature is its ability to accept KRW-based stablecoins for network fees.
According to the lightpaper released on the 22nd, Maru is designed as a sovereign layer-1 structure that maintains the openness and scalability of public blockchains while simultaneously considering the regulatory compliance, auditability, and privacy protections demanded by the financial sector. Unlike existing systems like Ethereum or Tron, which require gas fees to be paid in a separate virtual asset, Maru allows payments in Korean Won, lowering the barrier to entry for both general users and financial institutions.
Maru's initial application will be the Korean Won. It is designed to enable users to utilize blockchain services without holding separate virtual assets. As the ecosystem expands, the usage and circulation of the KRW stablecoin will increase accordingly. Hashed Open Finance is also considering expanding to other fiat currencies in line with the regulatory environment of each country.
The transaction structure is also designed to be financially friendly. Maru offers a "dual-track" model, offering an "open path" by default, allowing anyone to freely create a wallet and conduct transactions, while simultaneously implementing a "regulated path" where regulations are applied based on identity verification and transaction size. This is interpreted as an attempt to simultaneously meet the conflicting demands of decentralization and regulatory compliance.
Hashed Open Finance is an organization established to commercialize blockchain technology in the financial sector, including stablecoins, real-asset tokenization (RWA), and security token offerings (STOs). Maru is positioning itself as an infrastructure project to apply these initiatives to real-world financial markets.
Kim Seo-jun, CEO of Hashed, stated, "Stablecoins have already emerged as a core pillar of financial infrastructure in the global market. Maru is an experiment that respects Korea's regulatory environment while pursuing global-level technological openness." He added, "We hope this will serve as a foundation for banks, financial institutions, and fintech companies to explore next-generation financial services together."
The industry is watching closely to see whether Maru can serve as a testbed for domestic blockchain financial experiments centered around won-denominated stablecoins. The key question is whether this effort, which simultaneously considers regulation, technology, and usability, can lead to actual commercial financial services.
