Korea is a dynamic market with a very high adoption rate of digital assets and a fast pace of technological innovation. During this visit, we met with South Korea’s financial regulators to discuss in-depth the direction of legislation regarding stablecoins, and also held meetings with issuers preparing for the won stablecoins in the South Korean market. Jeremy Alair, founder and CEO of the world’s two largest dollar stablecoin USDC issuer Circle, unveiled detailed steps to enter the Korean market in a meeting with Kim Seo-joon, CEO of Hashed, Asia’s largest virtual asset venture capital, on the 13th.
On this day, CEO Alair emphasized the importance of the Korean market and Circle’s unique transparency management philosophy. The beginning of the talk began with CEO Kim Seo-joon referring to the unique status of the Korean market. CEO Kim asked about Circle’s Korean market strategy, saying, “Korea has a high technology level and active on-chain activities, serving as an excellent test bed for global virtual asset projects.”
In response, CEO Alair said, “Korea is a very important market,” but cited the clarity of the regulatory environment as a top priority. “Unlike other Asian countries such as Singapore, Japan and Hong Kong have already established a clear regulatory framework for stablecoins, Korea is still in the process of institutionalization,” he diagnosed. CEO Alair continued, “Circle wants to contribute to the Korean government’s establishment of a healthy regulatory environment based on our experience and expertise as a global leading issuer,” adding, “We will legally enter the Korean market at a time when regulatory uncertainty is resolved.”
CEO Alair expressed strong confidence by presenting “transparency” and “stability” as core values when asked about the difference from Tether (USDT), which has the largest market share. “Circle has made regulatory compliance and transparency a top priority for management since the beginning of the company’s establishment,” he stressed. CEO Alair indirectly criticized Tether, saying, “Other issuers make unclear disclosures of their portfolios of holdings or invest in risky assets to maximize profits, while USDC holds 100% of its deposits only as assets with little risk, such as government bonds.” In particular, he added, “Since its establishment, it has been audited by the four largest accounting firms every year and the results are transparently disclosed to the public,” adding, “This strict regulatory compliance and transparency are the reasons why traditional financial institutions choose Circle as their partner.”
CEO Alair also shared opinions with CEO Kim on the future actual use of stablecoins. When CEO Kim analyzed, “Stablecoin is serving as a link to the traditional financial industry (Web2) beyond the virtual asset ecosystem,” CEO Alair responded, “The potential of stablecoin in the payment market is endless.” “In particular, Asia is a region where cross-border payment innovation using stablecoins can occur the fastest due to large trade between countries and high demand for remittances,” he said. “We are already conducting pilot projects in some regions, including Hong Kong, and based on this, we will accelerate the introduction of blockchain-based Internet financial systems in the global payment market.”
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