Share this article
South Korea's Shinhan Bank Builds Pilot Platform for Central Bank Digital Currency
The Seoul-based bank built the blockchain-based platform in preparation for a role as intermediary should a digital won be launched.
Updated Sep 14, 2021, 12:24 p.m. Published Mar 10, 2021, 3:44 p.m.

Shinhan Bank has built a pilot platform for a potential South Korean central bank digital currency (CBDC) with assistance from LG CNS.
- The Seoul-headquartered bank built the blockchain-based platform in preparation for the issuance of a CBDC by the Bank of Korea (BOK), the Yonhap News Agency reported Monday.
- According to a Shinhan Bank official, should the central bank decide to move forward with the issuance, it would require an intermediary agency to distribute and encourage use of the digital won.
- The platform divides the CBDC's issuance into general funds for individuals and disaster support funds issued to support businesses and local government.
- The BOK has conducted research into the issuance of a CBDC, results for which were published in February.
- The central bank has yet to decide whether the digital won would be distributed directly to consumers or via an intermediary such as Shinhan Bank.
See also: Bank of Korea Chief on CBDC: Better Right Than Fast
More For You
The Protocol: Robinhood unveils its layer-2 testnet

Also: Citadel Securities backs LayerZero chain, MegaETH mainnet debut and ENS scraps L2 plans
What to know:
Welcome to The Protocol, CoinDesk's weekly wrap of the most important stories in cryptocurrency tech development. I’m Margaux Nijkerk, a reporter at CoinDesk.
In this issue:
- Robinhood starts testing its own blockchain as its push into crypto and tokenization deepens.
- Citadel Securities backs LayerZero as it unveils ‘Zero’ blockchain for global markets.
- MegaETH debuts mainnet as Ethereum scaling debate heats up.
- Ethereum's ENS identity system scraps planned rollup after Vitalik's warning about layer-2 networks.
Top Stories











