South Korea’s KB Financial Group Completes End-to-End Proof of Concept for KRW Stablecoin

According to Yonhap News Agency, KB Financial Group announced that it has successfully completed a full-process technical proof-of-concept (PoC) for the Korean won (KRW) stablecoin—from issuance and offline payments to merchant settlement and cross-border remittances—in collaboration with electronic payment provider KG Inicis, the Kaia public blockchain, and digital asset solutions provider OpenAsset. This PoC upgraded the internal settlement infrastructure to a blockchain-based system while preserving customers’ existing financial service habits. Real-world payment scenarios were implemented via self-service kiosks at the连锁 coffee chain Hollys: consumers need not install a digital wallet and can simply make QR-code-based payments, with blockchain smart contracts automatically executed during settlement. In the cross-border remittance validation, KRW stablecoins were first converted into USD stablecoins using liquidity on the Kaia chain, then transferred by local Vietnamese partners into actual bank accounts. The entire process took only three minutes and reduced fees by approximately 87% compared to traditional SWIFT-based methods.