Major South Korean conglomerates are shifting their view of stablecoins from a topic of interest to core business infrastructure, each finding applications in payments, settlement, and trade finance. Coupang, POSCO International, Hyundai Motor, and Samsung Electronics are each pursuing proof-of-concept (PoC) projects with distinct strategies, and industry observers say digital assets are beginning to be integrated into real business operations as institutional frameworks take shape.<\/p>\n
An official at one of South Korea’s five major financial holding companies said, “We’re meeting with electronics manufacturers as well as online and offline retailers. It’s not uncommon for companies to reach out to us first about digital asset business collaboration.”<\/p>\n
Coupang Eyes Fee Savings Across \u20a949 Trillion in Revenue<\/p>\n
For retail platform companies, the areas of greatest interest in stablecoins are payments and settlement. With large user bases, merchant networks, and proprietary payment infrastructure, these companies have relatively more touchpoints where stablecoins can be applied. For a large platform like Coupang, whose annual revenue reaches \u20a949 trillion, even marginal efficiency gains in payment and settlement structures can translate into significant cost savings.<\/p>\n
The won-backed stablecoin PoC recently conducted by Woori Bank and Coupang focused on validating this potential. The two companies tested a process using won-backed stablecoins for merchant settlement based on Coupang Eats order payments, as well as on\/off-ramp functions for converting between Korean won and stablecoins across bank accounts and digital wallets.<\/p>\n
Specifically, two scenarios were tested. The first involved using the existing credit card payment network but employing stablecoins at the settlement stage when paying merchants. The second processed everything from payment to settlement entirely in stablecoins, allowing merchants to receive funds in stablecoins and use them for other payments, enabling funds to circulate on-chain. The pilot utilized Tempo, a Layer 1 blockchain in which Coupang has invested.<\/p>\n
Industry observers point to payment processing fees as the primary reason retailers are drawn to stablecoins. For large retail platforms, even fees of around 1% accumulate into substantial costs at scale, creating strong incentives to adopt alternatives that reduce fees. An industry expert said, “With \u20a949 trillion in revenue, even a 1.8% fee amounts to a significant sum. For retailers, the ability to reduce financial fees is the biggest advantage.”<\/p>\n
The ease of integration with existing points and mobile payment infrastructure is another strength. Retailers already operate proprietary customer touchpoints such as points apps and barcode payment systems, reducing the burden of building separate channels. Companies with substantial overseas operations in Southeast Asia or Japan, in particular, see potential to extend beyond domestically valid points programs to cross-border payments and settlements with overseas affiliates.<\/p>\n
POSCO International Experiments with On-Chain Trade Finance<\/p>\n
POSCO International, a general trading company, is focused on cross-border remittances and trade finance. Given its extensive network of overseas subsidiaries and counterparties, the company sees efficiency gains in managing scattered transaction and settlement data across countries on a single ledger, and in digitizing trade receivables generated during trade processes.<\/p>\n
In a PoC conducted with LG CNS, POSCO International validated a structure for issuing trade receivables as digital assets on the Layer 1 blockchain Injective, including transfer, settlement, and management. The pilot also implemented real-time sharing of transaction information among headquarters, overseas subsidiaries, and counterparties on a shared ledger, while applying artificial intelligence (AI) to letters of credit (LC) and trade document review.<\/p>\n
Separately, the company is building blockchain-based cross-border remittance and payment infrastructure with Hana Financial Group and Dunamu. The system records cross-border remittance transactions on Dunamu’s GIWA chain and integrates with Hana Bank’s foreign exchange account systems. Actual funds move through existing bank payment networks, but remittance instructions and transaction status are shared on the blockchain\u2014a structure similar to JPMorgan’s institutional blockchain payment network Kinexys.<\/p>\n
Last year, POSCO International signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Kinexys to introduce a blockchain-based payment network. The two companies have explored reducing trade payment remittances\u2014which currently take one to two days\u2014to within minutes, with the goal of establishing infrastructure for real-time processing of approximately 40,000 annual cross-border remittances.<\/p>\n
Market observers view this as part of POSCO International’s broader effort to digitalize its existing trade finance operations. Going forward, receivables tokenization and cross-border remittance and payment infrastructure could converge into a single pipeline: issuing and managing trade receivables on-chain, raising capital against them, and connecting payments and settlements via blockchain.<\/p>\n
However, trade finance involves large transaction volumes, making processing speed, fees, and scalability critical. The ability to simultaneously satisfy regulatory requirements across multiple jurisdictions is also a key consideration. An industry source said, “POSCO International operates more than 80 overseas bases outside South Korea, so domestic regulations alone aren’t sufficient. Infrastructure that can accommodate compliance requirements across multiple countries is needed.”<\/p>\n
Hyundai Motor Pilots USDT Remittances Between U.S. and Mexico Subsidiaries<\/p>\n
Hyundai Motor Group is also advancing stablecoin pilots with commercialization in mind. With factories across the globe, the group’s efforts are geared toward preparing for commercial deployment of stablecoins in actual inter-subsidiary remittances.<\/p>\n
The first remittance PoC was conducted between Hyundai Motor’s U.S. and Mexico subsidiaries. When the U.S. subsidiary sent $20,000 (approximately 28 million won), the funds were converted to USDT, a dollar-backed stablecoin, transferred to Mexico, and then converted back to dollars. The entire process, including remittance and verification, took an average of seven minutes. Participants included Hyundai Card, Hyundai Motor’s U.S. and Mexico subsidiaries, Tether, Avalanche, and blockchain payment infrastructure company Axiym.<\/p>\n
A notable feature of the PoC was that Hyundai Motor’s overseas subsidiaries did not directly hold or handle stablecoins. Axiym, which has direct integration with Tether and authority to mint or procure USDT, handled stablecoin transactions solely at the stage of moving funds between Axiym’s wallets. The decision to avoid direct stablecoin holdings is interpreted as an effort to reduce regulatory burdens associated with corporate digital asset holdings while confirming improvements in remittance speed and cost.<\/p>\n
Hyundai Card announced last month that it is launching a second PoC targeting Hyundai Motor’s overseas subsidiaries in Europe. This phase will use not only dollars but also local currencies for remittances, and will assess foreign exchange costs to determine the actual economic viability of stablecoin remittances. Countries with Hyundai Motor production bases, such as the Czech Republic, are considered likely test locations.<\/p>\n
Samsung Electronics Aims to Secure Payment Channels via OpenUSD<\/p>\n
Samsung Electronics joined the OpenUSD (OUSD) consortium in June, alongside more than 140 global companies including Visa and Mastercard. OUSD has drawn attention for its structure that distributes interest earned on reserves among participating companies rather than allowing the issuer to retain it exclusively. Some observers suggest this approach could even impact the market position of Circle, issuer of USDC, the world’s second-largest dollar stablecoin.<\/p>\n
Industry analysts attribute Samsung Electronics’ participation in OUSD to its broad range of business areas that can connect to payments. With products sold worldwide across consumer electronics, smartphones, and semiconductors, the company has significant opportunities to reduce the time and cost of fund movements by applying stablecoins to payments and remittances.<\/p>\n
Indeed, Samsung Electronics announced at the Galaxy Unpacked 2026 event in London last month that it will integrate stablecoin functionality into Samsung Wallet. Lee Dinham, a Samsung Electronics product manager, said, “This will be one of the first instances among major mobile brands to have stablecoins natively built into smartphones.”<\/p>\n
A financial industry source said, “Samsung is a company that has been preparing for digital asset businesses for a long time. It’s worth noting that they already have devices and a pay platform capable of using issued stablecoins.” The source added, “Just as credit cards can be registered and used in Samsung Wallet, one can envision a structure where stablecoins are received in the wallet and connected to payments.”<\/p>\n
Samsung Electronics has also held meetings with South Korean financial institutions and blockchain infrastructure companies to discuss digital asset initiatives. An industry source said, “Samsung Electronics has powerful user touchpoints in mobile devices and wallets, giving it high utility in the payments space. With numerous global production bases, the company could eventually expand into inter-subsidiary payments and B2B fund movements.”<\/p>\n
Legislative Delays Pose a Variable<\/p>\n
Observers note that institutional frameworks must be established before general corporations can fully engage in digital asset businesses. As discussions on the Digital Asset Framework Act lost momentum around the local elections, the legislative timeline has slipped by more than six months, dampening corporate momentum.<\/p>\n
An official at a commercial bank said, “From last year through early this year, we received many inquiries from general corporations about related businesses. But with legislation delayed, the atmosphere isn’t as proactive as before when it comes to exploring digital asset initiatives.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Major South Korean conglomerates are shifting their view of stablecoins from a topic of interest to core business…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":118041,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[43088,426,41781,295,702,293,11614,40077,465,276,16958,12440,626],"class_list":["post-118040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hyundai-motor","tag-avalanche","tag-coupang","tag-digital-asset-framework-act","tag-hyundai","tag-hyundai-motor","tag-hyundai-motor-group","tag-kinexys","tag-openusd","tag-posco-international","tag-samsung-electronics","tag-tether","tag-usdt","tag-woori-bank"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118040\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}