South Korea

Japanese visitors may be able to pay with yen stablecoins in South Korea under Shinhan-SBI pact
The collaboration will explore card-linked merchant payments for Japanese visitors in South Korea and peer-to-peer wallet transfers among broader cross-border trade remittances.

South Korea blocks 27 crypto exchanges, including Bitmart and Kucoin
The country’s regulators are stepping up their earlier restrictions on mobile apps to websites, targeting unregistered exchanges before investors report losses.

South Korea just got its first traditional bank loans backed by bitcoin
Loans use third-party custodians for bitcoin holdings and rely on court-ordered sales if borrowers default.

Stablecoins could save South Korean merchants up to $3.8 billion a year, budget office says
South Korea’s budget office warned that stablecoin adoption could reduce banks' roles as credit intermediaries and potentially destabilize token pegs during mass redemptions.

South Korea targets February 2027 rollout for full tokenized securities market
Financial regulators unveiled a phased roadmap moving traditional capital markets onto distributed ledgers, concluding with onchain stablecoin settlement.

Visa doubles down on South Korea with Upbit operator Dunamu on stablecoin payments
Following a deal with Shinhan Financial, the global payments giant is widening its footprint in Asia’s major crypto hub through South Korea's largest exchange.

Mirae Asset eyes $109 billion crypto empire after acquiring Digital X
Park Hyeon-joo, Mirae Asset Financial Group’s founder, outlined his ambitious stablecoin, RWAs, and STOs plan for Digital X, formerly known as Korbit, in an event for his employees.

South Korea’s top financial conglomerate team up with Visa to test stablecoin issuance and B2B settlements
Shinhan Financial Group will use Visa’s platform to test stablecoin issuance, remittance, and redemption while building new AI-powered payment models.

South Korea trade giant POSCO brings trade receivables to Avalanche in latest tokenization move
The $22 billion trading company worked with Olea and Intain on the transaction, following an Injective pilot with LG CNS last month.

BitGo secures South Korea virtual asset license, says it's the first global crypto company to do so
Backed by Hana Financial Group and SK Telecom, BitGo Korea built a locally registered entity from scratch to serve institutional and enterprise clients, rather than taking the acquisition route.
