South Korea’s Eight Major Banks Plan Joint Venture to Issue KRW Stablecoin, Exploring Two Issuance Models

Odaily Planet Daily News: According to Korea Economic Review, eight major South Korean banks are preparing to establish a joint venture to issue a Korean won stablecoin. Participating institutions include KB Kookmin Bank, Shinhan Bank, Woori Bank, NongHyup Bank, Korea Development Bank, Suhyup Bank, Citibank Korea, and Standard Chartered Bank Korea. The project is being jointly promoted by the Bank Joint Open Blockchain and Decentralized Identifier Association and the Korea Financial Telecommunications & Clearings Institute, and discussions on the underlying infrastructure are still ongoing.
If approved by regulators, the joint venture is expected to officially launch by the end of this year or early next year. The project team is currently considering two issuance models: the first is a trust model, where customer funds are first independently held in trust before issuing the stablecoin; the second is a deposit token model, where the stablecoin is directly linked to bank deposits.