Dunamu, operator of Upbit, partners with Visa on stablecoin payments, remittances, and AI agent commerce. The deal explores OUSD but Dunamu says it is not prioritizing any single stablecoin.
Dunamu, the operator of South Korea's largest crypto exchange Upbit, has struck a strategic partnership with Visa. The two companies plan to build stablecoin-based payments, cross-border remittances, and AI-driven financial services.
The deal was announced at Visa's Global Market Support Center in San Francisco. Dunamu CEO Oh Kyung-seok presented the roadmap alongside Visa global president Oliver Jenkyn.
Dunamu brings digital asset technology built through Upbit, custody, transfers, and anti-money-laundering tools, to Visa's payments network. The partnership will explore international payments and settlement services running on stablecoins, along with AI-powered finance.
One use case is agentic commerce. An AI agent searches for a product or service and completes the purchase and payment on the user's behalf, with stablecoin settlement.
The companies plan to examine business models built on OUSD, a dollar-backed stablecoin from the Open Standard consortium. That group includes Visa, Mastercard, BlackRock, Circle, and more than 140 other institutions. OUSD has not launched yet.
OUSD differs from Tether's USDT and Circle's USDC, which are run by single companies. It is designed as shared infrastructure managed through independent governance. Most of OUSD's reserve income goes back to the banks, card firms, and exchanges that distribute it. There are no issuance or redemption fees.
A Dunamu spokesperson said OUSD is one of several stablecoins under review. The company is "not prioritizing nor excluding specific stablecoins," the spokesperson stated.
Dunamu was once listed as a consortium partner for OUSD alongside other Korean firms. It later said there was no formal agreement to join.
The launch of any stablecoin product depends on South Korea passing the Digital Asset Basic Act, still under review by the National Assembly. The law may allow only groups where commercial banks own at least 51% to issue won-backed stablecoins, following warnings from the Bank of Korea about non-bank stablecoin issuance.
Other Korean financial groups are also moving on stablecoins. Shinhan Financial Group signed its own strategic agreement with Visa on August 24 to test stablecoin issuance, remittance, and redemption. It was Shinhan's second stablecoin partnership in four months.
Hana Financial Group took a 6.55% stake in Dunamu in May to jointly build a won-stablecoin ecosystem. Samsung affiliates bought a combined 4% stake in the company before its July talks on stablecoin and AI payments.
Visa already runs stablecoin pilots across nine blockchains and more than 130 stablecoin-linked card programs in about 40 countries. Its annualized settlement volume stood at $7 billion as of April. Visa also joined BLOOM, a Monetary Authority of Singapore initiative linking traditional payment systems to regulated stablecoin rails. J.P. Morgan, DBS, and Circle were among the participants.
Dunamu operates its own public blockchain, Giwa. Target countries for the financial service, service formats, and a launch schedule have not been set.
Drafted by a large language model from the source reporting linked above, then screened by automated publishing checks. It is not read by a journalist before publication. Some articles cite our Alpha Score. Verify prices and figures against the original source. Educational coverage, not personalized advice.