CEO finds 2024 outage crisis opportunity to enhance ATS competence
Korea is cementing its central role in Blue Ocean Technologies’ Asia-Pacific strategy, with its Seoul office — which just marked its first anniversary — propelling overnight U.S. stock trading in the region, CEO and President Brian Hyndman said Thursday.
He said the Seoul office has been instrumental in regaining customers since its launch in February 2025, turning a crisis in August 2024 caused by a system outage into an opportunity to hone technological and sales capabilities.
The rebound is especially crucial as Blue Ocean Technologies, once the sole competitor in Korea’s alternative trading system (ATS) for U.S. stocks, now faces competition from other ATS operators in the wake of the 2024 incident, according to the CEO.
“Korea is the headquarters and the center of our Asia-Pacific business, and we were very focused on hiring local talent after the outage,” Hyndman said during an interview with The Korea Times in Seoul’s financial district of Yeouido.
He explained that Asia represents about half of Blue Ocean Technologies’ more than 140 brokerage houses, with customers spanning 30 countries worldwide. Korea accounts for roughly 35 percent of the trading volume on any given night.
The CEO especially lauded Kim Suk-joon, the inaugural chief of the Seoul office, saying that hiring him was “one of the main reasons why we see Koreans return to trading on Blue Ocean ATS.”
The company resumed trading in November 2025, after roughly 630 billion won ($442.22 million) in transactions were canceled in August 2024, affecting approximately 90,000 investor accounts.
“Prior to the outage, we were handling 30 million shares a night, and for almost the last four months, we’ve been processing 125 to 130 million shares a night,” Hyndman said.
“We rolled out what we believe is superior technology, and in addition, the tremendous relationships that Suk-joon has built have given Koreans confidence and led them to return to the platform,” the CEO added, referring to Kim’s more than 25 years of experience in the financial market.
He went on to say, “The outage led us to become a more customer-focused organization.”
The upgrade in technological and sales capabilities came as Blue Ocean ATS, which previously handled only Korea’s daytime U.S. orders, now competes with two additional U.S.-based ATS platforms — Bruce and MOON.
Moreover, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and Nasdaq are both moving toward nearly round-the-clock trading, presenting a challenge for ATS operators.
Hyndman assessed the presence of Bruce and MOON “as healthy competition in the space, providing the Korean community with confidence that there is redundancy.”
He noted that the two account for roughly 10 percent of the overnight volume, while Blue Ocean handles about 90 percent.
As for NYSE and Nasdaq, Hyndman said that around-the-clock trading is not likely to happen anytime soon.
“I have reason to believe that will take years. You have to build out the overnight market data system, called the SIP, roll out real-time trade reporting, handle corporate actions and integrate everything into all the data feeds out there,” he explained.
The CEO also commented on tokenization, the process of creating a digital version of a real-world asset such as stocks on a blockchain or decentralized network.
Blue Ocean Technologies plans to trade tokenized securities from the National Market System, the regulatory framework that governs securities trading in the U.S., on its ATS beginning in the second quarter of 2026.
“I think it gives global investors the ability to manage their risk even on weekends,” he said. “By enabling overnight, 24-hour trading, tokenization allows everyone to manage their risk around the clock.”
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