Visa Partners with Upbit Operator Dunamu on Stablecoin and AI Payments in South Korea

Visa Adds South Korea’s Largest Exchange to Digital Assets Push

Visa has announced a new partnership with Dunamu, the company behind Upbit, South Korea’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. The collaboration focuses on developing stablecoin payment services and artificial intelligence (AI) settlement infrastructure.

The deal follows another agreement Visa signed earlier this week with Shinhan Financial Group to build similar settlement infrastructure in the country.

What the Partnership Covers

Visa and Dunamu will explore payment models based on OUSD, an open-standard stablecoin. A stablecoin is a digital currency designed to hold a stable value, often tied to a traditional currency like the US dollar.

The partnership also looks into "agentic commerce." This involves AI agents that can search for products or services and complete purchases on behalf of users. It creates a way for AI systems to handle transactions without traditional bank accounts.

Context: Visa’s Growing Role in Korea

South Korea is one of Asia’s largest crypto markets, home to at least 16 million cryptocurrency users. The deal positions Visa at the center of the country’s effort to build stablecoin payment infrastructure.

This move builds on recent trends in the Korean market:

• In May, Samsung bought a 4% stake in Dunamu.
• This week, Mirae Asset outlined $109 billion in crypto ambitions for the Digital X exchange it acquired in July.

Industry Perspectives

Oh Kyung-seok, CEO of Dunamu, said AI, stablecoins, and tokenization are key trends that will reshape finance and commerce.

Yat Siu, co-founder and executive chairman of Animoca Brands, recently supported a similar vision. He noted that crypto is the natural payment infrastructure for autonomous machine transactions because it is unlikely that banks will open accounts for AI agents anytime soon.

What Is Confirmed

The primary source confirms that Visa and Dunamu have agreed to explore business models using the OUSD stablecoin framework and AI-powered payment infrastructure. The information regarding the size of the South Korean crypto user base and previous investments by Samsung and Mirae Asset comes from the same reporting.

Why It Matters

The partnership highlights a major global payments company integrating with a leading regional crypto exchange. It signals that traditional financial giants are actively seeking ways to use blockchain-based stablecoins and AI for future payment settlements in high-adoption markets like South Korea.

Sources

• CoinDesk