{"id":28930,"date":"2026-05-18T13:26:23","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T13:26:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/south-korea-stablecoin-race-heats-up-as-kb-tests-offline-payments\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T13:26:30","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T13:26:30","slug":"south-korea-stablecoin-race-heats-up-as-kb-tests-offline-payments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/south-korea-stablecoin-race-heats-up-as-kb-tests-offline-payments\/","title":{"rendered":"South Korea stablecoin race heats up as KB tests offline payments"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div class=\"post-detail__content blocks\">\n<p><strong>KB Financial Group completed a proof of concept for a South Korean won-denominated stablecoin.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<div id=\"cn-block-summary-block_9c65880c856955870d2c4ab3a16e5d4c\" class=\"cn-block-summary\">\n<div class=\"cn-block-summary__nav tabs\">\n        <span class=\"tabs__item is-selected\">Summary<\/span>\n    <\/div>\n<div class=\"cn-block-summary__content\">\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>KB Financial tested won stablecoin issuance, offline QR payments, merchant settlement and Vietnam remittances.<\/li>\n<li>The Vietnam transfer finished in under three minutes and cut fees by about 87%.<\/li>\n<li>South Korea\u2019s stablecoin rules remain unsettled as banks and fintech firms continue payment pilots.<\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><!-- .cn-block-summary --><\/p>\n<p>The pilot tested payments, settlement and overseas remittances with KG Inicis, Kaia and OpenAsset.<\/p>\n<p>The project tested the full service flow. It covered issuance, offline payments, merchant settlement and remittances. DigitalToday <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.digitaltoday.co.kr\/en\/view\/55979\/kb-financial-completes-poc-for-won-stablecoin-payments-settlement-and-remittances\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">reported<\/a> that the pilot kept the user-facing payment flow familiar while moving the internal settlement process to blockchain.<\/p>\n<p>    <!-- .cn-block-related-link --><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Offline QR payments tested at Hollys<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The offline payment test took place at Hollys coffee kiosks. Users paid through QR codes without installing a separate crypto wallet. A smart contract then handled settlement automatically.<\/p>\n<p>The setup matters because it places stablecoin payments inside a normal retail setting. It also shows how banks could use blockchain settlement while keeping the checkout process close to existing mobile payments.<\/p>\n<p>Further, KB Financial also tested a cross-border remittance flow. The process converted a won stablecoin into a dollar stablecoin through Kaia\u2019s on-chain liquidity, then sent funds to a bank account in Vietnam through a local partner.<\/p>\n<p>The transfer finished in under three minutes. DigitalToday and Maeil Business Newspaper reported that the test reduced fees by about 87% compared with existing SWIFT-based transfers.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Stablecoin rules remain the main barrier<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>KB Financial said it plans to build operational capacity so it can launch stablecoin services when South Korea\u2019s digital asset laws are ready. A KB Financial official said, \u201cIt is important to reduce dependence on overseas platforms and for the domestic financial sector to proactively secure operational capabilities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The regulatory path remains open. Reuters <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/asia-pacific\/bank-korea-governor-nominee-positive-about-won-denominated-stablecoins-2026-04-14\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">reported<\/a> in April that Bank of Korea Governor Shin Hyun-song supported won-denominated stablecoins as part of the future currency system.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>However, Reuters also reported earlier that the central bank <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/asia-pacific\/bank-korea-deputy-chief-says-desirable-introduce-stablecoins-gradually-2025-06-24\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">preferred<\/a> a gradual rollout led by tightly regulated commercial banks because stablecoins may affect monetary policy and settlement systems.<\/p>\n<p>Recent crypto.news coverage shows the same policy split. Shin\u2019s first speech as Bank of Korea governor focused on CBDCs and deposit tokens, while stablecoins remained a contested part of South Korea\u2019s digital finance agenda.<\/p>\n<p>    <!-- .cn-block-related-link --><\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>KB Financial Group completed a proof of concept for a South Korean won-denominated stablecoin.\u00a0 Summary KB Financial tested won stablecoin issuance, offline QR payments, merchant settlement and Vietnam remittances. The&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15703,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cryptocurrency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28930"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28930\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28931,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28930\/revisions\/28931"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}