BC Card Directly Connects Stablecoins to Korean Merchants
South Korea's largest card network, BC Card, has successfully completed a three-month proof-of-concept pilot with Coinbase and Wavebridge. The pilot demonstrated that USDC (a stablecoin) can be used to pay Korean merchants directly, without the need for an intermediate product.
The previous approach in South Korean stablecoin pilots was to route payments through a bridging product, such as a prepaid card. This added extra cost and friction to the payment process. BC Card's new model eliminates this middle entity by converting USDC to won (Korean currency) at the point of transaction.
The pilot also addressed the long-standing limitation of blockchain-based payments: refunds. BC Card's system supports cancellation and refund transactions, allowing customers to receive their USDC back immediately if a payment is canceled.
This achievement is significant because it shows that the technology can be scaled up for commercial deployment. BC Card's network covers over 20% of Korea's card transactions across 3.5 million merchant locations, making it ready for widespread adoption.