South Korean financial group Shinhan has signed a strategic business agreement with Visa to test stablecoin functions on Visa's payment platform. The partnership, formalized at Shinhan’s headquarters in central Seoul, marks Shinhan’s second major stablecoin collaboration in four months as South Korea moves toward establishing formal regulations for the sector.
Under the agreement, Shinhan plans to run stablecoin functions through Visa's platform to develop a business model tailored to the Korean market. The pilot program covers issuing tokens, transferring them, and cashing them in. Additionally, the companies plan to test tokens in card payment settlement, develop AI-powered payment models, and expand business-to-business and business-to-consumer payment lines. Shinhan intends to connect Visa’s global network to its main subsidiaries, including Shinhan Bank, Shinhan Card, and Jeju Bank.
Jin Ok-dong, chair of Shinhan Financial Group, stated that the agreement expands their long-standing partnership with Visa into the broader digital finance sector to deliver differentiated financial experiences to customers.
This initiative follows a series of digital asset moves by Shinhan. Shinhan Card previously signed a memorandum of understanding with the Solana Foundation in April to test stablecoin payments on the Solana layer-1 blockchain. In August, the group's asset management arm partnered with the Solana Foundation, Etherfuse, and Orca to test a Korean Won-denominated tokenized fund. Furthermore, in July, Shinhan joined OpenUSD alongside Samsung Electronics and Dunamu as part of a 140-company effort supported by Visa and Mastercard to standardize a dollar-backed payment token.
These developments occur as South Korea works on the Digital Asset Basic Act, a legislative framework addressing stablecoins, exchange licensing, and crypto exchange-traded products. Regulators previously proposed restricting Korean Won stablecoin issuance to bank-led consortia where commercial banks own at least 51%, following warnings from the Bank of Korea regarding monetary policy and deposit protection. Meanwhile, rival institution KB Financial completed a Korean Won stablecoin pilot on the Kaia blockchain in May.
