Shinhan Card of South Korea collaborates with Japan's SBI to explore cross-border payment settlement using a yen stablecoin

Shinhan Card, a subsidiary of South Korea's Shinhan Financial Group, is collaborating with a subsidiary of Japan's SBI Holdings to explore the application of a yen stablecoin for payments between the two countries. Participants include the cryptocurrency exchange SBI VC Trade and the trade finance blockchain company SBI XDC Network APAC. This collaboration will study scenarios such as merchant payments linked to bank cards for Japanese tourists visiting Korea, as well as inter-wallet transfers and cross-border trade settlements, and will include suspicious transaction monitoring and anti-money laundering compliance systems. Shinhan Card serves approximately 20 million cardholders and stated that it will connect this project with Shinhan Financial's broader digital asset strategy, which includes an agreement reached with Visa in August to explore stablecoin issuance, transfers, and card settlements.

Currently, the project is still in its early stages, and the parties have not disclosed the types of stablecoins to be tested, nor have they set a timeline for testing or commercial rollout. SBI has previously issued the yen stablecoin JPYSC, launched by SBI Shinsei Trust Bank in collaboration with Startale Group, which had a circulation of approximately 20.1 billion yen (about 127 million USD) as of September 7. JPYSC is currently limited to use within SBI VC Trade accounts and cannot be transferred to external wallets. Its circulation on the public blockchain depends on legal and tax clarity and regulatory approval, and the parties have not indicated whether JPYSC will be included in this test.