Visa Secures Second Korean Stablecoin Partnership in One Week, This Time With Dunamu

Visa has entered a strategic partnership with Dunamu, the company behind South Korea’s largest crypto exchange Upbit, to explore stablecoin payments, global remittances, and AI-driven commerce. The announcement follows a deal earlier in the same week between Visa and Shinhan Financial, making this Visa’s second Korean stablecoin arrangement in rapid succession.

The two deals carry slightly different emphases. The Shinhan partnership centred explicitly on the Visa Stablecoin Platform (VSP), whereas the Dunamu announcement focuses on exploring business models around OpenUSD, the stablecoin positioned as the lead instrument on the VSP. OpenUSD was unveiled in June with 140 major partners and a reserve-revenue-sharing model; it is led by Zach Abrams, chief executive and co-founder of Bridge, the payments infrastructure firm owned by Stripe. The distinction matters because it suggests Dunamu’s engagement may be oriented more directly toward OpenUSD’s commercial architecture than toward VSP as a broader settlement rail.

The Hana Financial connection adds an institutional dimension worth tracking. Hana Financial, South Korea’s third-largest financial group, paid $666 million to acquire a stake in Dunamu, meaning a major traditional bank now sits behind the exchange at the same moment Dunamu is aligning with Visa’s stablecoin infrastructure. Shinhan, covered in Visa’s earlier deal, is the country’s second-largest financial group. Together the two announcements suggest Visa is consolidating relationships across Korea’s top-tier financial ecosystem rather than picking a single partner.