Eight major banks in South Korea are planning to establish a joint venture company to issue Korean won stablecoins

On June 25, it was reported that eight major banks in South Korea are preparing to establish a joint venture company and plan to issue Korean won stablecoins. Participating institutions include Kookmin Bank, Shinhan Bank, Woori Bank, Nongxie Bank, Korea Development Bank, Water Association Bank, Citibank Korea Branch and Standard Chartered Korea Branch. The project is jointly promoted by banks to open blockchain and the Decentralized Identifier Association, Korea Financial Telecom and the Clearing Institute, and the underlying infrastructure is still under discussion.
Subject to regulatory approval, the joint venture is expected to go live by the end of this year or early next year. The project team is currently considering two issuance models: a trust model, in which customer funds are independently trusted before issuing stablecoins; and a deposit token model, in which stablecoins are directly linked to bank deposits.