Kakao Group is moving ahead with a won-denominated stablecoin that consumers could use for everyday payments and money transfers. The group is going beyond securing the technology needed to issue and circulate the token, testing actual use cases and building an ecosystem that brings in financial firms and platform operators.
Kakao Group said on the 29th that it unveiled its digital asset business plans at Next Finance Korea, an event it co-hosted with KB Kookmin Bank. It laid out priorities including wider circulation of a won stablecoin and the buildout of payment and settlement infrastructure based on digital assets.
Kakao has been reviewing the business case for a won stablecoin since last year and has since secured the technology required for issuance and circulation, entering a phase of identifying and testing real-world applications. The company is focusing in particular on using Kakao Pay's base of 43 million users to establish the won stablecoin as a routine means of payment and remittance. At the event, Kakao presented use cases it developed in-house, including transfers and payments through digital asset wallets, inbound cross-border payments and settlement, and agentic payments powered by artificial intelligence.
Kakao Group also proposed forming a roundtable, an open cooperative body that would draw broad participation from banks, brokerages and other financial institutions, along with fintech and platform companies, virtual asset service providers and e-commerce firms. "To avoid falling behind in the race to build the next generation of financial infrastructure that the combination of AI and blockchain will create, cooperation and participation from a range of players across issuance, circulation, regulation and security are essential," said Shin Won-keun, chief executive of Kakao Pay and co-head of Kakao Group's stablecoin task force.
