Table of Contents
Dunamu, the operator of South Korea's largest cryptocurrency exchange Upbit, has partnered with Visa to develop payment and financial services built around stablecoins and artificial intelligence, the companies announced on August 28.
Dunamu chief executive Oh Kyung-seok and Visa global president Oliver Jenkyn unveiled the roadmap a day earlier at Visa's Global Market Support Center in San Francisco.
The partnership pairs Dunamu's digital asset technology with Visa's global payments network to explore stablecoin-based payment and remittance services across major markets. The companies said they will examine business models built on OUSD, the open-standard stablecoin backed by a consortium that includes Visa, Mastercard, BlackRock, Circle and more than 140 other institutions, alongside new user experiences for payments and settlement. The collaboration also extends to AI-powered payment services, combining artificial intelligence with stablecoin-based settlement infrastructure, and the companies said they are considering technology for agentic commerce, in which AI agents search for products or services and complete purchases on a user's behalf. Dunamu and Visa said the partnership will roll out in stages, with an initial focus on stability, transparency, interoperability and regulatory compliance.
"AI, stablecoins and tokenization are key trends that will reshape how finance and commerce operate," Oh said. "Through our partnership with Visa, we will connect digital assets with traditional finance and create new global financial experiences for users."
The announcement lands in the middle of a busy week for Visa's stablecoin strategy in general and its presence in South Korea specifically. On August 26, Shinhan Financial Group signed a separate strategic agreement with Visa to build stablecoin payment infrastructure and explore AI-powered payments, marking the first time a top Korean financial group adopted Visa's enterprise stablecoin technology domestically. A day earlier, Visa announced it had joined BLOOM, a Monetary Authority of Singapore initiative that connects traditional payment systems with regulated stablecoin rails, naming cross-border payments firm Nium as its first partner to pilot settlement in stablecoins backed by the US dollar and euro. Visa is one of more than a dozen banks, payment providers and stablecoin issuers participating in BLOOM, alongside J.P. Morgan, DBS, OCBC, Standard Chartered and Circle.
For Dunamu, the Visa tie-up is the latest in a string of partnerships aimed at converting its dominant position in Korean crypto trading into broader digital finance infrastructure. Samsung SDS disclosed talks with Dunamu in July on stablecoin infrastructure and AI-based payment systems following a combined 4% stake acquisition by three Samsung affiliates, while Hana Financial Group took a 6.55% stake in Dunamu in May and outlined plans to jointly build a won-denominated stablecoin ecosystem, cross-border remittances and tokenized securities. Dunamu also operates Giwa, its own public blockchain network, which underpins several of those won-stablecoin discussions.
For Visa, the Dunamu partnership fits a pattern of stitching together separate national stablecoin efforts under its own settlement rails, rather than building a single global stablecoin itself. The company has spent 2026 signing bilateral stablecoin and AI-payments agreements with exchanges, banks and payment firms across multiple jurisdictions while simultaneously joining multilateral, regulator-led frameworks such as BLOOM. Whether Dunamu and Visa's roadmap produces a commercial product will depend on how South Korea's stablecoin and digital asset legislation, still working through the National Assembly, ultimately treats bank and non-bank issuers.
