Cryptoupdated 1h ago2 min read
Shinhan Card, SBI VC Trade Test Yen Stablecoin Payments for Japan-South Korea Travelers
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Shinhan Card and SBI Group pilot yen-stablecoin payments for Japan-Korea travel PoC covers card payments, wallet transfers, and cross-border trade settlement
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Japan-Korea yen stablecoin tests
Shinhan Card signed an agreement with SBI VC Trade and SBI XDC Network APAC to test yen stablecoin payments for travelers and cross-border trade settlement, with the companies planning to test stablecoin card payments, wallet-to-wallet payments, and cross-border trade settlement. Shinhan Card said the pact would assess anti-money-laundering and fraud-detection controls, and it framed the work as a way to improve payment convenience for travelers between South Korea and Japan.
SBI VC Trade and SBI XDC Network APAC planned to evaluate whether stablecoins can support settlement of commercial payments and connect with existing international remittance arrangements. Tourism figures in the sources put the potential customer base at more than 10 million visitor arrivals between Japan and South Korea in the first eight months of 2026, with South Korea recording 7.42 million arrivals from Japan and Japan recording 2.7 million arrivals from South Korea.
Pilots include AML and FDS
Shinhan Card said the pilot would examine card payments linked to a yen stablecoin, wallet-to-wallet transfers, and cross-border trade settlement, while also reviewing security and risk-management systems including anti-money laundering safeguards and a fraud detection system.
Shinhan Card President Park Chang-hoon and SBI VC Trade Representative Director Tomohiko Kondo discussed cooperation measures at a signing ceremony at SBI Group headquarters in Tokyo on Oct. 20, and the agreement targeted a proof of concept to introduce stablecoins into actual payment and settlement areas.
SBI XDC Network APAC Chief Operating Officer Tadashi Yoshida was named among the ceremony attendees in one account, and the same source said the partners would examine transaction processes, user experience, and operating arrangements before deciding whether the proposed services are commercially viable.
CoinDesk described the initiative as an early-stage effort without a set commercial timeline and said the firms had not named the stablecoin they plan to test or set a timeline for trials, let alone a commercial launch.
Stablecoin rails and next steps
Shinhan Card and its partners tied the work to a broader strategy for global digital-asset infrastructure, with one source saying the group signed a business agreement with Visa in August covering future financial businesses including digital assets and artificial intelligence-based payments. One account said the collaboration would explore card-linked merchant payments for Japanese visitors in South Korea and peer-to-peer wallet transfers, while also studying systems to detect suspicious transactions and meet anti-money laundering rules.
Another source described a separate SBJ Bank proof-of-concept for yen stablecoin account top-ups, where SBJ Bank signed a memorandum of understanding with JPYC and LINE NEXT for a proof-of-concept of a yen stablecoin top-up feature. In that SBJ Bank PoC, JPYC was described as a yen-pegged stablecoin issued by JPYC that serves as the intermediary, and the three companies planned to decide on commercialization based on the results of technical validation and whether regulatory requirements are met.