Jeremy Alair, CEO of Circle, the world’s second-largest stablecoin issuer, will visit Korea next week for a series of meetings with management of major financial holdings and large virtual asset exchanges in Korea. According to the financial and virtual asset industries on the 6th, CEO Alair will visit Korea next week and meet with major domestic commercial banks such as KB Kookmin, Shinhan, and Hana, as well as heads of major virtual asset exchanges such as Dunamu (Upbeat), Bithumb, and Coinone. During his visit to Korea, Alair plans to focus on working-level consultations with key executives in charge of practical business implementation. KB Financial plans to expand and develop existing cooperative relationships, including △ ways to utilize global stablecoins USDC in Korea △ cooperation in the international payment sector △ review of the possibility of issuing stablecoins based on won.
According to sources in the financial sector, Shinhan Financial Group and Hana Financial Group are also expected to have separate meetings with the circle, respectively. Meetings with domestic virtual asset exchanges are also closely organized. It has been confirmed that all three major virtual asset exchanges in Korea, including Upbit (13th), Bithumb, and Coinone, are also planning to hold management meetings with Circle. At this meeting, the expansion of the USDC distribution and settlement ecosystem in the won market and support measures for cross-chain technology are expected to be dealt with as key agendas.
In particular, the series of meetings is drawing more attention as it coincides with the timing of the domestic financial sector and exchanges speeding up their stablecoin and tokenization businesses one after another. Currently, the domestic banking sector is participating in the Bank of Korea’s Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) demonstration project and testing deposit tokens, and in the mid- to long-term, it is seeking to establish a cross-border remittance and trade settlement network using stablecoins such as USDC. Virtual asset exchanges are also actively seeking to expand the USDC support pool and link platforms to secure global liquidity and expand the Web3 ecosystem beyond the existing KRW spot market fees. In addition, the “second stage of digital assets legislation,” which is currently being discussed by the National Assembly and financial authorities, is also a major variable.
The second stage of legislation includes △ requirements for issuing stablecoins and establishing a discipline system △ allowing corporations to invest in virtual assets △ allowing virtual assets to be issued (ICO) in stages. Jeremy Alair, CEO of Circle, introduces the mainnet roadmap of the blockchain network “Arc” with quantum resistance (PQ) function and the trend of autonomous asset management using AI agents. From Circle’s point of view, if KRW stablecoin or corporations participate in the virtual asset market in earnest through the second-stage legislation, it is expected to pay attention to the potential for Korea to grow into an enormous Web3 market for institutions. Circle is expected to use Korea as a key bridgehead for targeting the Asian market ahead of the launch of the next-generation quantum-resistant blockchain network “Arc”. CEO Alair emphasized strong security on the 4th, saying, “Ark will be one of the world’s first blockchain networks with quantum resistance (PQ) function from the first day of launch of Mainnet.” He recently suggested the convergence of AI and blockchain as a key trend in next-generation finance. Of the 155 teams that have worked on arc-based projects, 97% have integrated AI agents that manage funds autonomously, and 89% have used USDC on arc as a payment layer.
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