Visa Forges Key Alliances to Dominate South Korea’s Stablecoin and AI Payment Landscape

Global payments titan Visa is aggressively expanding its cryptocurrency footprint across Asia, securing a dominant position in South Korea’s burgeoning digital asset market. Following a landmark collaboration with Shinhan Financial Group to develop stablecoin and artificial intelligence (AI) payment platforms, Visa has now announced a strategic alliance with Dunamu, the operator of South Korea’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Upbit, to further accelerate these innovative services.

This latest partnership with Dunamu will leverage stablecoins and AI to pioneer advanced financial payment services, as reported by The Korea Herald. These concerted efforts, building upon Visa’s earlier agreement with Shinhan Financial Group to jointly construct robust settlement infrastructure, unequivocally position Visa at the forefront of the race to establish stablecoin payment infrastructure dominance in South Korea.

South Korea has long been recognized as a pivotal battleground for global digital asset innovators. With over 16 million active cryptocurrency users, according to CoinGecko data, the market’s immense potential has attracted significant investment from traditional conglomerates. Reflecting this trend, tech giant Samsung made a substantial investment in May, acquiring a 4% stake in Dunamu. More recently, Mirae Asset Group unveiled an ambitious $109 billion cryptocurrency business blueprint for its Digital X exchange, which it had just acquired in July, underscoring the fierce competition and vast opportunities within the sector.

Detailing their collaboration, Visa and Dunamu revealed plans to explore business models centered around the open-standard stablecoin OUSD, alongside enhancing user experience in payments and settlements. The alliance also extends to advanced AI-driven payment services and agent commerce infrastructure, where intelligent AI agents can autonomously search for products or services and complete purchases on behalf of users, ushering in a new era of automated transactions.

Commenting on the strategic implications, Oh Kyung-seok, CEO of Dunamu, emphasized, “Artificial intelligence, stablecoins, and tokenization are key trends reshaping how finance and commerce operate.” This sentiment highlights the transformative potential of these technologies in the global financial landscape.