TL;DR
- Circle signed memoranda of understanding with Kakao Group and Toss Bank to explore stablecoin payment infrastructure in South Korea.
- The agreement with Kakao covers won-backed stablecoin payments, remittances, merchant settlement, and tokenized financial services.
- Circle’s USDC has a total supply of $74.4 billion, compared to Tether’s USDT at $184.3 billion.
Circle strengthened its presence in South Korea with two new strategic partnerships. The stablecoin issuer signed memoranda of understanding with Kakao Group —the tech giant behind KakaoTalk, Kakao Pay, and KakaoBank— and with Toss Bank, an exclusively digital bank that has been expanding aggressively within the crypto asset ecosystem.
Connections, Payments, and the Digital Won
Under the agreement with Kakao, the companies will explore the connection between Circle’s global blockchain infrastructure and the South Korean conglomerate’s consumer platforms and financial services. Areas of work include won-backed stablecoin payments, cross-border remittances, merchant settlement, and bridges between traditional financial systems and blockchain networks. Both parties will also examine support for tokenized financial services, though no specific products or launch timelines were disclosed.
Circle 🤝 Kakao Group
Circle and Kakao Group have signed an MOU to explore blockchain-based payment infrastructure and digital asset technologies in Korea.
Together, we’ll assess opportunities for USDC and Circle’s global payment rails across payments, settlement, and digital… pic.twitter.com/MmZRd19iIH
— Circle (@circle) July 23, 2026
Separately, Circle is working with Toss Bank to evaluate stablecoin-based payment projects. The virtual bank had announced in June a partnership with the Solana Foundation to develop blockchain financial infrastructure aimed at users around the world.
The new alliances deepen a strategy Circle has been executing in the South Korean market since early 2026. In April, the company signed agreements with Upbit and Bithumb, South Korea’s two largest cryptocurrency exchanges, which account for more than 95% of the country’s daily trading volume. On that occasion, Jeremy Allaire, CEO of Circle, noted that the partnerships included work on promoting and driving adoption of USDC on Korean exchanges, as well as technology collaborations across other company initiatives.
Circle Wants to Dominate the South Korean Market
Circle is seeking to anchor itself to South Korea’s advances as the country, amid internal tensions, moves toward stablecoin-specific regulation. The Bank of Korea argues that banks should retain a majority stake in issuers, while the Financial Services Commission warns that such a restriction would limit competition.
The government included advancing the Digital Asset Basic Act among its priorities for the second half of 2026, though the legislative process remains stalled. Against that backdrop, technology and financial companies are not waiting for regulation to establish their position: KB Financial Group completed a stablecoin issuance and offline payment pilot in May through the Kaia blockchain, while Kbank was testing remittances using Ripple technology in April.
