Summary
KakaoBank will directly handle issuance, custody, and settlement of the won stablecoin — not just issuance but the full ecosystem. Kakao Pay, KakaoBank, and Kakao formed a joint task force in August 2025. KakaoBank CFO Kwon Tae-hoon confirmed the bank will participate across issuance, custody, settlement, and distribution. The consortium approach includes major commercial banks, regional financial groups (BNK, JB Financial), and global platform companies. KRW stablecoin legislation is still pending in the National Assembly — Kakao is building infrastructure ahead of legalization.
Key Points
- Issuer: KakaoBank (licensed bank) — directly handling issuance, custody, settlement, and distribution
- Task force: KakaoBank + Kakao + Kakao Pay (formed August 2025)
- Revenue model: dividend income, custody fees, service fees from stablecoin operations
- Bank consortium: approaching major commercial banks and regional groups (BNK, JB Financial)
- Super Wallet: unified platform for KRW stablecoins, traditional won, virtual assets, and local currencies
- Use cases: fandom commerce, concert/ticket payments, traditional market transactions, mobility, AI agent payments
- Regulatory status: KRW stablecoin legislation pending in National Assembly — no specific license framework yet
- Global expansion: hiring for MiCA (EU) and MAS (Singapore) regulatory analysis — targeting those frameworks as benchmarks
- Kakao Group advantages: 40M+ KakaoTalk users, 500M+ annual offline payments, banking/securities/insurance infrastructure
- Targeting 10M monthly active users by 2027