Korean Institutions Onchain: Stablecoins
Ethereum Korea One: Genesis · Day 1 · 2026-09-28 · 20:01 · In Korean
Why has the KRW stablecoin conversation gone quiet, and what will separate success from failure once legislation passes? At Ethereum Korea One: Genesis, practitioners from Toss, Lambda256, and Base joined a KRW stablecoin panel held in Korean.
Speakers
- Wonyoung Her, Corporate Development Team Leader, Viva Republica (Toss)
- Michael Cho, CBO, Lambda256
- David Park, APAC Ecosystem Lead, Base
- Jinsol Bok, Head of Research, Co-Founder, Four Pillars (moderator)
About this session
Moderated by Jinsol Bok, Head of Research at Four Pillars, this panel brings together fintech, infrastructure, and global L2 perspectives on preparing for KRW stablecoins. It covers each company's current initiatives, whether the apparent cooling of interest since last year is due to regulation or business viability, and what a stablecoin business needs to succeed after the Digital Asset Basic Act passes.
Key takeaways
- Toss sees the KRW stablecoin as a "new financial infrastructure rail" that will replace or coexist with existing financial infrastructure. It is building the technical capability to internalize basic rail functions and validating integration with existing financial infrastructure through PoCs with partners.
- Lambda256 is pursuing three pillars: institutional node operations and data services, a connection that lets existing AML systems analyze onchain transactions, and orchestration that ties together issuance, distribution, off-ramp, and FX players.
- Base said its basic direction is the adoption of regulation-compliant stablecoins, and it acts as a major distribution partner for USDC. About 20 compliant stablecoins, including PYUSD, circulate on Base. In Korea, it is running a USDC-based pilot and testnet paper testing.
- The panel agreed that interest has not so much cooled as moved from a "dreaming phase" to designing real businesses. Most financial institutions have already completed one or two PoCs and are testing even agent payments in depth, but the diagnosis is that they cannot move to the next stage without legislation.
- Because Korea's card payment network is already well developed, payments alone make revenue growth difficult. Panelists pointed out that legal ambiguity around overseas business models, such as reserve management, sharing reserve income with distributors, and debit card style models using existing card networks, makes it hard to judge business viability.
- On conditions for success, three views were offered: treat the KRW stablecoin as a means, not an end, and use blockchain as an "open ledger" for the AI era (Lambda256); design a framework that can extend beyond payments to the public blockchain financial stack (Base); and three necessary conditions: cheap infrastructure access, a service users choose, and distribution capability (Toss).
Chapters
- Opening and panel introductions
- Session topic: KRW stablecoins
- Each company's KRW stablecoin initiatives
- Has interest cooled? Why the business is moving slowly
- Conditions for success after the Digital Asset Basic Act
- Lambda256: the KRW stablecoin as a means
- Base: programmable money and public blockchains
- Toss: three necessary conditions for success
- Closing