Shinhan Card, Solana Launch Stablecoin Merchant PoC in Korea

Shinhan Card and the Solana Foundation have signed a memorandum of understanding to run an advanced proof of concept in South Korea that tests stablecoin merchant payments, non-custodial wallets and smart-contract functionality.

The agreement, announced Thursday, follows a joint pilot completed in early April and builds on a proof of concept Shinhan Card completed on April 9. The follow-on PoC aims to assess commercial viability for merchants and customers and to identify technical integrations between existing card rails and blockchain payment systems.

Under the partnership, the two organizations will examine smart-contract execution stability, the use of blockchain oracles to bring off-chain data on-chain, and non-custodial wallet flows in which users retain private keys. Tests will include user experience and settlement mechanics for retail payments.

Shinhan’s earlier pilot covered six areas: on-chain peer-to-peer payments, payment infrastructure that integrates digital assets, hybrid products combining stablecoin-backed checks and credit, stablecoin-based cross-border remittances and settlement, merchant-facing stablecoin payment acceptance, and IC chip-enabled card services that interface with crypto wallets. The new PoC will expand those tests to examine commercial-scale operation.

Shinhan framed the work as an effort to bridge fiat payment systems and the digital-asset ecosystem and said it plans to explore DeFi-linked services that use oracle feeds and programmatic contracts to automate elements of payment and settlement.

Shinhan Card is South Korea’s second-largest credit card issuer with a 16.9% market share; Samsung Card reached 17.02% in March. Other payments firms and card networks, including Visa, Mastercard and BC Card, have tested stablecoin settlement. Visa introduced USD Coin settlement on the Solana blockchain for some U.S. financial institutions in December 2025.

Neither Shinhan nor the Solana Foundation published a commercial launch timeline. The memorandum covers technical testing and feasibility work for the advanced PoC; next steps will depend on regulatory review, pilot results and merchant adoption.