Dunamu, the operator of South Korea’s largest cryptocurrency exchange Upbit, has formed a strategic partnership with Visa to explore stablecoin payments, international remittances, and AI-driven financial services, the companies announced on Aug. 28.
The agreement was signed by Visa Worldwide Pte. Limited, Visa’s Asia-Pacific entity, before Dunamu CEO Oh Kyung-seok and Visa Global President Oliver Jenkyn presented a partnership roadmap at Visa’s Global Market Support Center in San Francisco on Aug. 26 local time.
Under the partnership, the companies plan to combine Dunamu’s digital-asset infrastructure with Visa’s global payment network. Their stated research areas include stablecoin payments, cross-border transfers, merchant settlement, and new user experiences. They will also evaluate business models involving Open USD, or OUSD, a dollar-backed stablecoin developed through the Open Standard initiative. The initiative has named Visa, Mastercard, Coinbase, BlackRock and more than 140 other organizations as supporters.
However, neither company has disclosed a product structure, launch date, supported jurisdiction, blockchain, custody model, settlement process, or pricing. Dunamu described its Open Standard involvement as preliminary and said the agreement does not yet constitute a product launch or a commitment to offer stablecoin payments through Upbit.
Planned AI work includes agentic commerce, where software searches for products, selects services and executes payments on a user’s behalf. The companies said they would examine technology supporting authorization, payments and settlement for these transactions but did not specify how users would approve purchases, set spending limits or dispute AI-initiated transactions.
Visa has already expanded its stablecoin settlement and programmable payment work, announcing new infrastructure for stablecoins, tokenized deposits and AI-directed transactions in June.
Dunamu said stability, transparency, interoperability and regulatory compliance would guide the work. South Korea has not completed its broader stablecoin framework, and the partners acknowledged that applicable laws and regulatory requirements will affect how the initiative develops.
