South Korea’s Shinhan Card has signed an agreement with Japan’s SBI VC Trade and SBI XDC Network APAC to test yen stablecoin payments for travelers and cross-border trade settlement, the company announced Wednesday.
The pact, signed Tuesday, covers tests of stablecoin card payments, wallet-to-wallet payments and cross-border trade settlement. The companies will also assess anti-money-laundering and fraud-detection controls.
Focus on safeguards and settlement
According to the announcement, the initiative is intended to support cross-border payments and settlement between South Korea and Japan and to improve payment convenience for travelers. The companies will evaluate safeguards for travelers and whether stablecoins can speed up trade settlement between the two countries.
Shinhan Card is one of South Korea’s largest credit card companies. SBI is a Japanese financial group with operations spanning banks, brokerages, insurers and crypto exchanges.
Travel flows underpin the test
Travel between the two countries generated more than 10 million visitor arrivals in the first eight months of 2026, according to official tourism figures from both countries. South Korea was Japan’s largest source of foreign visitors with 7.42 million arrivals, while Japan was South Korea’s second-largest source with 2.7 million arrivals.
Shinhan Card said in April that it had completed a proof-of-concept testing that covered stablecoin payments and cross-border settlement.
SBI VC Trade registered in March 2025 as Japan’s first electronic payment instruments exchange service provider, enabling it to handle USDC.
