Summary
Shinhan Financial Group, one of South Korea's five largest conglomerates, is partnering with Visa to test stablecoin issuance, remittance, redemption and payment settlement using Visa's enterprise stablecoin platform, marking the first reported adoption of that infrastructure by a major South Korean financial group.
Key Takeaways
Key Takeaways
- This is the first reported adoption of Visa's enterprise stablecoin platform by a major South Korean financial institution, giving Visa an early foothold in the country's emerging bank-led stablecoin market.
- The partnership extends beyond basic stablecoin testing to include bank card payment settlement integration and AI-powered payment models, signalling ambitions to embed stablecoins into existing banking rails.
- South Korea's pending Digital Asset Basic Act is actively encouraging financial institutions to pilot stablecoin use cases before a formal regulatory framework is finalised.
- Shinhan is simultaneously testing stablecoins across multiple layers, including a Solana-based Korean won-denominated tokenized fund and earlier stablecoin payment trials with the Solana Foundation, reflecting a broad multi-partner digital asset strategy.
Shinhan Financial Group, one of South Korea's five largest financial conglomerates, is partnering with Visa to build stablecoin infrastructure and develop AI-powered payment models as the country moves toward a formal regulatory framework for digital assets.
Under the agreement, Seoul-based Shinhan will use Visa's enterprise stablecoin platform to test core functions including issuance, remittance and redemption, while the two companies develop a business model tailored to the South Korean market, South Korean news outlet FNNews reported.
The partnership marks the first reported adoption of Visa's enterprise stablecoin infrastructure by a major South Korean financial group.
Shinhan to Test Stablecoins Across Payments
The partnership will go beyond testing the basic functions of a stablecoin.
Visa and Shinhan plan to pilot the integration of stablecoins into bank card payment settlement, alongside new business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-customer (B2C) payment models.
The companies will also explore AI-powered payment applications, combining Shinhan's banking infrastructure with Visa's global payments network.
"We will combine Shinhan's financial capabilities with Visa's global infrastructure to jointly design new future finance models," said Jin Ok-dong, chairman of Shinhan Financial Group.
Visa launched its enterprise stablecoin platform in July, offering infrastructure designed to support stablecoin minting, movement and management for financial institutions and businesses.
The Shinhan partnership gives Visa an early position in South Korea's emerging bank-led stablecoin market, as local financial institutions increasingly explore how tokenized money could fit into existing payment infrastructure.
South Korea Moves Toward Stablecoin Regulation
The partnership comes as South Korea advances its Digital Asset Basic Act, which is expected to establish rules covering stablecoins, virtual asset service providers and other parts of the digital asset market.
The regulatory push has encouraged banks and financial groups to explore potential stablecoin applications before a final framework is established.
Shinhan is already active across several areas of digital assets.
Earlier this month, its asset management division signed an agreement with the Solana Foundation, Etherfuse and Orca to test a Korean won-denominated tokenized fund.
Shinhan and the Solana Foundation also partnered in April to trial stablecoin payment systems.
With the Visa partnership, Shinhan is now testing stablecoins across several layers of the financial stack—from issuance and redemption to payments and tokenized investment products.
For Visa, the deal provides an opportunity to establish its stablecoin infrastructure within South Korea's banking system as the country prepares to formalize its digital asset market.
For Shinhan, the experiments could help determine how stablecoins can be integrated into existing banking and payment rails rather than operate as a separate crypto market.