South Korea's Shinhan Financial Group has agreed to test the issuance, sending, and cashing of stablecoins on the Visa payment platform.
This is already Shinhan's second major stablecoin partnership in four months, as Seoul moves closer to establishing formal rules for the stablecoin sector.
Shinhan Develops Visa Platform
On August 24, the two companies signed a strategic partnership agreement at Shinhan's headquarters in central Seoul.
Shinhan aims to launch stablecoin features through Visa's existing platform and subsequently create a business model suitable for the Korean market. The pilot project covers token issuance, sending tokens to others, and cashing.
The pair also plan to test tokens in card payment processing systems, develop AI-based payment models, and expand payment channels for both business (B2B) and consumer (B2C) use.
Shinhan stated it will connect Visa's global network with its key subsidiaries, such as Shinhan Bank, Shinhan Card, and Jeju Bank.
Jin Ok-dong, Chairman of the Board of Shinhan Financial Group, said: "Through this agreement, we have expanded our long-standing partnership with Visa into the broader digital finance sector."
He added that the group aims to "provide its customers with differentiated financial services."
At the end of April, Shinhan Card and the Solana Foundation signed a memorandum of understanding to test stablecoin payments on the Solana Layer-1 blockchain.
In early August, the group's asset management unit entered into an agreement with the Solana Foundation, Etherfuse, and Orca to test a Korean won-denominated tokenized fund.
Shinhan is Developing Services It Cannot Yet Legally Sell
In July, Shinhan, Samsung Electronics, and Dunamu were among 13 Korean companies that joined OpenUSD, an initiative bringing together 140 companies to standardize a dollar-backed token for payments supported by Visa and Mastercard.
The current Visa agreement was reached in April when executives from both sides discussed collaboration opportunities. In the last quarter, Shinhan's net profit was 1.82 trillion won, approximately $1.3 billion.
South Korea operates under the Digital Asset Basic Act, which covers stablecoins, exchange licensing, and cryptocurrency exchange-traded products (ETPs).
Last December, lawmakers and regulators proposed a plan to restrict won-denominated stablecoin issuance to consortiums only. Following warnings from the Bank of Korea that non-bank issuers could undermine monetary policy and deposit protection, these consortiums must include commercial banks holding at least 51% of shares.
Competitor KB Financial completed a pilot project to launch a KRW stablecoin on the Kaia blockchain, reducing cross-border transfer times to around three minutes.
