South Korea's Shinhan Card and two companies in Japan's SBI Group have agreed to test how yen-denominated stablecoins could connect with card payments and cross-border settlement. SBI VC Trade announced the memorandum on October 21 with SBI XDC Network APAC, describing a phased effort to link digital assets with existing financial and payment infrastructure. The agreement creates a research and proof-of-concept program, not a live payment service. The companies have not named the token they will use or set a trial or commercial launch date.

The proposed tests span consumers and businesses

The partners plan to examine whether yen stablecoins and other digital assets can work with physical-store payment services. They will study the user experience, transaction flow and technical and operational structure before judging whether a product is commercially viable. Independent reports say one intended use case is card-linked spending by Japanese visitors in South Korea. The memorandum also covers wallet-to-wallet transfers and settlement of trade payments between the two countries. It does not identify participating merchants, payment limits or the exchange process between yen, won and a stablecoin.

Related reporting: Tether Leads $15 Million Mural Round for Stablecoin Payment Infrastructure

Compliance is part of the design exercise

Anti-money-laundering procedures and fraud detection are included in the planned work. That matters because a cross-border payment product must do more than move tokens: it must identify customers, screen transactions, manage sanctions exposure and determine how merchants receive final value. The partners also intend to explore links with existing remittance infrastructure rather than assuming blockchain settlement can replace every part of the conventional payment chain. No measured cost saving or processing-time improvement has been published, so efficiency claims remain goals for testing rather than demonstrated results.

SBI brings regulated digital-asset operations

SBI VC Trade operates as a Japanese crypto-asset exchange, financial-instruments business and electronic-payment-instruments service provider. The company began handling USDC after receiving the relevant Japanese registration in 2025. SBI XDC Network APAC, a joint venture between SBI Holdings and TradeFinex Tech, works on blockchain infrastructure for trade finance and cross-border payments. The October agreement also leaves open cooperation around XDC Network, but it does not commit the Shinhan payment test to a particular blockchain or state that a new node will be launched.

The stablecoin itself remains unspecified

SBI already distributes JPYSC, a yen-backed stablecoin issued by SBI Shinsei Trust Bank, but neither the official notice nor the participating companies said JPYSC will be used in this project. That distinction is important. Naming a yen-stablecoin use case does not confirm the issuer, reserve structure, redemption rules or wallet availability of the eventual payment asset. Shinhan Card brings a base of roughly 20 million card members, according to SBI, yet the agreement does not say those customers will participate in a trial or how users would be selected.

What would turn the memorandum into a service

A meaningful next step would be a dated pilot notice identifying the stablecoin, participating merchants, eligible users, settlement currency and compliance responsibilities. Pricing will also determine whether the model improves on conventional card and remittance rails after foreign-exchange spreads, wallet costs and merchant conversion are included. Until those details arrive, the agreement is evidence that two established financial groups are testing a Japan-South Korea stablecoin corridor. It is not proof that travelers can already spend yen stablecoins at Korean stores or that commercial deployment is guaranteed.

Sources

AI-generated editorial image; not a photograph of the reported event. Prepared with AI assistance and source verification.