South Korean card issuer BC Card has completed the country’s first stablecoin payment proof of concept (PoC), working with Coinbase and institutional digital-asset technology firm Wavebridge to test whether foreign visitors could pay at domestic BC QR merchants using USDC held in a Coinbase Base network wallet, without a separate currency exchange.
The three-month pilot, which began in April, simulated real-world transactions on the Base testnet and pre-production verification environments to comply with current South Korean regulation. Wavebridge, whose virtual-asset service provider notification was accepted by Korea’s Financial Intelligence Unit (KoFIU) in December 2024, verified the settlement segment from stablecoin receipt and custody through conversion to Korean won, before passing it into BC Card’s existing card settlement process. Merchants kept their existing terminals and settled in won as before.
The PoC also addressed blockchain’s irreversibility limitation. By connecting BC Card’s cancellation and settlement process with Wavebridge’s on-chain asset return, the partners verified that a stablecoin returns to the customer’s wallet upon cancellation or failure, allowing blockchain-based payments to support refunds like conventional card payments.
The work comes amid rising inbound tourism. According to the Korea Tourism Organization, Korea welcomed 18.94 million foreign visitors in 2025, a record surpassing the previous peak in 2019. BC Card CEO Young-woo Kim said the PoC shows Korea’s card payment infrastructure can operate reliably in a global stablecoin payment service, and aligns with the KT Group’s digital-asset-based digital finance platform strategy, potentially leveraging BC Card’s 3.5 million-merchant network. Wavebridge CEO John Oh said the company intends to operate the stretch from custody through fiat conversion in full compliance with regulatory requirements as it moves toward commercialization.
While the pilot was limited in scope, it demonstrates technical feasibility and could accelerate similar stablecoin payment initiatives in other Asian markets.
