Visa has signed a strategic partnership with Dunamu, the operator of South Korea’s largest crypto exchange Upbit, to build stablecoin-based payments, cross-border remittances and AI-driven commerce. It is the card network’s second Korean tie-up in a week, following an agreement with Shinhan Financial Group.
The companies said Friday that Dunamu’s digital asset technology will be combined with Visa’s global payments network. The scope covers stablecoin payments, international remittances and what the firms call “agentic commerce,” meaning AI agents that search for goods, complete purchases and settle payments on a user’s behalf, according to The Block.
For Visa, that makes two Korean footholds in two days. A deal with Shinhan Financial Group on Aug. 26 covered stablecoins, AI and B2B payments, The Block reported. Both agreements fit a broader push by global payment networks to build stablecoin rails in major crypto hubs.
No financial terms were disclosed, and neither firm gave a timeline or named a specific product. A Dunamu spokesperson told The Block that Open Standard’s proposed Open USD (OUSD) stablecoin is “one of many” projects under review for future use, and that the actual asset will be decided after a review of market demand, regulation, stability and suitability.
“The spread of AI, stablecoins and tokenization is a key trend that will change how finance and commerce operate,” Oh Kyung-seok, CEO of Dunamu, told Cointelegraph. “Through cooperation with Visa, we will connect digital assets with existing finance and create new global financial experiences that users can feel.”
The stated aim is interoperability. Link stablecoins to existing global payments infrastructure in a way the firms describe as safer, more transparent and regulation-aligned.
OUSD, which launched in June 2026 with backing from 140-plus institutions including Visa, Mastercard and Google, is framed by Open Standard as shared payments infrastructure with no mint or redeem fees at scale and reserve revenue largely passed through to participants. Several South Korean firms, including Dunamu and Samsung Electronics, were listed as OUSD consortium partners but later clarified they had no formal agreement to participate, The Block reported in July. Whether that has changed is not addressed in Friday’s announcement.
The Dunamu-Visa deal follows a pattern of card networks moving deeper into stablecoins as regulation clarifies and tokenized settlement gains traction. Traders, as ever, will note that none of these agreements has yet produced a live consumer product.
