Kakao Pay Vice President Son Kyung-hee: “Digital wallets are the integrated execution layer for the stablecoin era”

“Virtual-asset (crypto) wallets will serve as a core execution layer that spans individuals and companies, local and global. If we build a structure that also encompasses asset transfers based on stablecoins, we can expand naturally on top of existing interfaces without having to redesign a new financial experience every time.”

Son Kyung-hee, Vice President at Kakao Pay (pictured), said this on the 13th at the conference “KRW Stablecoins as a Platform: Distribution, Use and Demand for Digital Payment Tokens,” held at Hashed Lounge in Gangnam, Seoul. She noted that a key task in the phase of stablecoin adoption is securing real-world usability and a foundation for everyday use.

She particularly emphasized the role of virtual-asset wallets. “Wallets matter not simply because they store value, but because most asset transfers pass through this point,” Son said, adding that “regardless of asset type or country—fiat currency, stablecoins, virtual assets, points or securities—it must be possible to handle them through the same interface.” The idea is to build an integrated execution layer linking online and offline, individuals and businesses, and domestic and overseas.

Kakao Pay is also focusing on the efficiency gains from a stablecoin-enabled “wallet-to-wallet (W2W)” model. Son explained, “Existing global intermediary networks are trustworthy, but they have structural characteristics in which costs and time accumulate,” adding that “if direct connections between wallets become possible, intermediation can be minimized, bringing costs down from 3–5% to around 0.1–1%, while settlement can be processed in near real time.”

She pointed to B2B cross-border settlement as the area where such a model could be applied first. “Transactions between multinational companies are large, repetitive and move across multiple country entities,” she said, adding that “introducing stablecoin-based wallet-to-wallet settlement would deliver significant efficiency improvements versus the existing structure.” She also cited potential use cases such as settlement of IP royalties in the gaming and content industries and fund transfers among overseas affiliates.

Kakao Pay also plans to build a next-generation financial layer through a phased strategy. “Because this is a financial service, stability must be a given,” Son said. “In the early stages, we are conducting proof-of-concept (PoC) projects in a limited range of use cases and focusing on securing a structure that can be trusted.” She added that the goal is to expand transaction volumes and ultimately evolve into a public financial network with rules and responsibilities embedded.

“Recently, platforms have been expanding their role beyond simple payment portals to become entities that design the flow of distribution and settlement,” she said. “We will broaden finance’s execution capabilities so that users can experience better payments and asset transfers in their daily lives without needing a complex technical understanding.”