Coupang and Woori Bank complete Korea's first KRW stablecoin payment on Tempo

South Korea’s first end-to-end Korean won stablecoin payment and settlement proof of concept has been completed, with e-commerce platform Coupang and Woori Bank running the test on Tempo, a payments-focused Layer 1 blockchain incubated by Stripe and Paradigm. The transaction involved a Coupang Eats food delivery order paid in a KRW-denominated stablecoin, with merchant settlement executed in real time on Tempo and Woori Bank managing both the fiat on-ramp and off-ramp. The stablecoin issuer was not disclosed.

The three parties have framed the exercise as the start of a continuing strategic partnership, tied explicitly to the pace of Korea’s evolving digital-asset regulatory environment. The positioning is deliberate: with won-stablecoin legislation still under legislative consideration, the proof of concept establishes Tempo, Coupang, and Woori Bank as first movers ahead of a formal licensing regime rather than within one.

Coupang had already been named as a Tempo design partner when the chain was announced in September 2025, so the institutional relationship predates this milestone. The signal here is less about the technology and more about the commercial stack taking shape: a major consumer platform, a systemically important bank, and a venture-backed settlement chain are aligning before the regulatory perimeter is drawn, which suggests each party expects to influence, or at minimum benefit from, the framework as it crystallises.