Korea's FinTech Firms Rush to Form Stablecoin Alliances

Korea's financial and crypto industries are accelerating their collaborations ahead of the legalization of won-denominated stablecoins. Hana Financial Group is working on a won stablecoin ecosystem with Dunamu, in which it acquired a 6.55% stake for about $724 million in May. The two companies aim to build infrastructure for issuing, circulating, using, and redeeming won stablecoins using Dunamu's proprietary Giwa Chain.

Hana Financial has also completed technical verification for an overseas remittance service using Giwa Chain. Samsung Securities, Samsung SDS, and Samsung Card are acquiring a combined 4% stake in Dunamu through direct equity investments for $444 million.

Kakao Group, Toss, and Toss Bank have signed separate strategic business agreements with Circle to pursue cooperation on payment and settlement infrastructure, including won stablecoins. Mirae Asset plans to rename Korbit as Digital X and build it into a core platform linking traditional finance and digital assets in a single investment ecosystem.