Shinhan and Visa Test Stablecoin Settlement Infrastructure in South Korea
South Korea's Shinhan Financial Group is testing a stablecoin settlement infrastructure in collaboration with Visa. The pilot project, which includes work on AI-powered payment models, aims to explore the use of tokenized value for corporate remittances and cross-border settlements.
The focus on business-to-business (B2B) settlements is a key aspect of this initiative, as it narrows the use case and allows banks to test whether stablecoin settlement can reduce reconciliation time and free up trapped liquidity without leaving the existing payments ecosystem.
Visa's AI-powered payment models will be integrated into the project, enabling machine learning-driven remittance patterns, anomaly detection, and forecasted liquidity needs. This integration brings the project closer to newer Web3 infrastructure work on decentralized compute and AI applications across chains.
The regulatory backdrop for stablecoin integration in South Korea is still unsettled, but Shinhan's move with Visa provides a visible case study without forcing regulators to approve a retail stablecoin launch. The tension between banking and crypto market structure is not limited to Seoul, as seen in the legislative clash in Washington.