Visa is pressing ahead with its South Korea expansion as it broadens its crypto-related business in Asia. After recently announcing a partnership with Shinhan Financial Group to work on stablecoin and artificial intelligence payment platforms, the global payments company has now reached another agreement with Dunamu, the operator of Upbit, South Korea’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, to develop similar services together.
According to The Korea Herald, Dunamu will work with Visa to build financial payment services using stablecoins and AI. Earlier, Visa had already entered a similar arrangement with Shinhan Financial Group, with the two sides planning to build settlement infrastructure together.
The report said these deals give Visa a leading position in the race to build stablecoin payment infrastructure in South Korea.
South Korea remains a key digital asset market
South Korea has long been a major battleground for global digital asset companies. CoinGecko data cited in the report shows that the country has more than 16 million active cryptocurrency users, making it a closely watched market.
Large traditional conglomerates have also been making moves. In May this year, Samsung acquired a 4% stake in Dunamu. Then on Thursday, Mirae Asset Group outlined a $109 billion cryptocurrency business plan for Digital X, an exchange it had acquired in July.
Partnership to cover OUSD, payments and agent commerce
Visa and Dunamu said they will explore business models based on the open-standard stablecoin OUSD, along with user experience in payments and settlement.
The partnership will also include AI-driven payment services and agent commerce infrastructure. In agent commerce, AI agents can search for products or services and complete purchases on behalf of users.
Dunamu CEO comments
Oh Kyung-seok, chief executive of Dunamu, said, 「Artificial intelligence, stablecoins and tokenization are key trends reshaping how finance and commerce operate.」