South Korea's stablecoin market landscape begins to take shape: multiple contenders, who will lead?

After taking office, South Korean President Lee Jae-myung quickly mobilized the South Korean cryptocurrency industry. Not only are eight major commercial banks preparing to jointly launch a Korean won stablecoin project, but traditional tech giants and Web3 companies are also making moves, hoping to seize the initiative in the increasingly fierce regional and even global stablecoin competition.

At the same time, the National Assembly is reviewing the "Basic Law on Digital Assets" to provide a legal basis for private institutions to issue Korean won stablecoins, and financial regulatory authorities are also accelerating the establishment of operational norms in line with international standards. This indicates that the second half of 2025 to the first half of 2026 could be a key period for the rapid growth of the Korean stablecoin market.

Korea Bank Alliance

The Bank of Korea adopts a cautious attitude towards stablecoins. Bank Governor Lee Chang-yong stated that they are working with relevant institutions to develop a regulatory framework for stablecoins to ensure their stability and practicality, while also preventing them from being used to evade foreign exchange controls.

Under this policy direction, banking institutions have become the most competitive participants in the Korean won stablecoin sector. Bank of Korea Senior Deputy Governor Yoo Sang-daeh stated that stablecoins denominated in Korean won should first be issued by commercial banks that are subject to strict regulation.

According to reports, eight major banks in South Korea plan to prepare to establish a joint venture to issue a Korean won stablecoin. The participating banks include National Bank, Shinhan Bank, Woori Bank, Nonghyup Bank, Korea Corporate Bank, Suhyup Bank, Citibank Korea, and Standard Chartered Bank Korea. The Open Blockchain and Decentralized Identifier Association, along with the Korea Financial Telecommunications and Clearing Institute, will participate in coordination and cooperation.

The project team is considering two issuance models for stablecoins: one is the trust model, where customer funds are first held in trust before issuing stablecoins; the other is the deposit token model, which links stablecoins to bank deposits. After完善法律体系, it is possible to establish a joint venture company as early as the end of this year or the beginning of next year.

Among these eight banks, National Bank has shown the most proactive performance, having initiated the process to acquire trademark rights related to stablecoins. Shinhan Bank, on the other hand, partnered with Hedera as early as 2021 to conduct a pilot for a KRW stablecoin. Woori Bank, NH Nonghyup Bank, and others play important roles in CBDC testing, interbank RTGS, and blockchain projects. Corporate Bank has been deeply involved in credit and trade financing for SMEs for many years. Standard Chartered and Citibank's Korean branches, backed by their parent banks' international networks, can provide overseas clearing and offshore liquidity support for stablecoins.

Kakao Pay and Kaia

Kakao Pay is arguably the most proactive among large companies in the layout of the Korean won stablecoin. As a leading enterprise in the Korean payment sector, Kakao Pay has achieved a penetration rate of over 60% in online and offline QR code payments, P2P transfers, and e-commerce settlement scenarios in South Korea.

On June 22, Kakao Pay officially launched its business layout for the Korean won stablecoin, submitting 18 trademark applications for the "KRW" "K" "P" combinations to the Korean Intellectual Property Office, covering the fields of virtual asset financial transactions, electronic transfers, and intermediary services. Kakao Pay will actively cooperate with the legislative process of the Digital Asset Basic Law to seek to become one of the first compliant stablecoin issuers after the regulations are implemented.

Kaia is an EVM-compatible Layer 1 public chain formed by the merger of Klaytn and Finschia in August 2024. Sam Seo, the chairman of KaiaChain, stated that they will "fully promote the issuance of Korean won stablecoin" on the Kaia mainnet. Kaia has launched local USDT and collaborated with Tether to introduce USD₮ into the Kaia ecosystem, laying the technical and ecological foundation for the subsequent KRW stablecoin.

Kaia is collaborating with super applications such as Kakao Pay and LINE NEXT to plan a stablecoin project, aiming to achieve integrated cross-chain and cross-platform circulation of "on-chain + social + payment". With the ecological synergy of the underlying public chain and terminal payments, once the policy is released, its stablecoin project can be quickly launched to seize market opportunities.

Danal

Danal, a long-established payment service provider in South Korea, is also widely regarded as a promising participant. Danal has submitted multiple patent applications to the Korean Patent Office in June 2025 for "POS terminals supporting virtual asset payments and their operating methods," aiming to provide underlying technical support for possible stablecoin payment scenarios in the future.

On a technical level, Danal has a natural advantage in the business process of stablecoins due to its years of accumulated POS terminal network and payment clearing system. Its POS terminals can directly identify and settle on-chain tokens, simplifying the user payment path; its backend system for merchant settlements can seamlessly integrate with off-chain reserve management, providing prerequisites for compliance audits and reserve proof.

Nexus

The blockchain startup Nexus expressed its desire to become the first issuer of a Korean won stablecoin. Nexus has issued a Korean won stablecoin named KRWx on the BNB Chain and has submitted a trademark registration application to the Korean Patent Office. In addition, they have also submitted trademark applications for fiat stablecoins such as the US dollar (USDx), Japanese yen (JPYx), and Euro (EURx).

Nexus CEO Jang Hyun guk stated that they chose to pre-launch KRWx on the BNB Chain to establish a first-mover advantage and declared that they will continue to launch more fiat-backed stablecoins, emphasizing that "the reason for the existence of stablecoins lies in their practicality" and the opportunities they present in the global digital economy.

Nexus is preparing for the issuance of "KRWx" and other fiat stablecoins, and plans to establish a Hong Kong subsidiary, Nexus Stable HK, to leverage its advantages in Hong Kong law and trading markets, advancing the internationalization of stablecoins.

Other Potential Participants

Nexledger, launched by Samsung SDS, the IT solutions and system integration subsidiary of the Samsung Group, is one of the most mature enterprise-level private blockchain solutions in the Korean market. Nexledger has already equipped itself with the three core features required for stablecoin: "traceability + high reliability + auditability." Once the internal or partner issuance plans are finalized, the technical preparations are almost ready.

Samsung SDS has been listed as one of the potential "infrastructure providers," and its enterprise clients may issue or host stablecoins through Nexledger.

LG's IT solutions and system integration subsidiary, LG CNS, is also viewed as a potential participant and beneficiary. LG CNS was selected as the official contractor for the Bank of Korea's wholesale CBDC/tokenized deposit system, responsible for building the open blockchain platform.

As a core provider of wholesale CBDC and digital currency solutions, LG CNS has mastered key capabilities in on-chain asset management such as minting, clearing, auditing, and custody. With the advancement of the "Basic Law for Digital Assets", private institutions will gradually acquire the qualifications for stablecoin issuance, and LG CNS can occupy the role of an infrastructure supplier through technology output.