Kakao Group Joins Fireblocks to Build Stablecoin Infrastructure

Kakao Pay and KakaoBank said on September 22 that they signed a memorandum of understanding with Fireblocks to build digital-asset infrastructure in South Korea.

The three companies plan to jointly explore infrastructure demand and business opportunities in the domestic digital-asset market, with a focus on stablecoins. They will also review digital-asset distribution solutions tailored to South Korea’s regulatory framework, security systems and service environment, and pursue a proof of concept to test their technical applicability.

Fireblocks provides infrastructure for payments, settlement, custody, tokenization, trading, accounting and regulatory compliance to financial institutions and virtual-asset service providers. More than 2,500 institutions, including over 100 banks globally, use its services, according to the company. It says it has secured more than $16 trillion in cumulative digital-asset transactions.

Kakao Group said it plans to combine Kakao Pay’s payments and fintech capabilities, KakaoBank’s financial expertise and the group’s blockchain technology to build a Korean-style digital-asset ecosystem. The agreement appears set to prompt a more concrete review of infrastructure and service models related to won-denominated stablecoins, whose possible institutionalization is under discussion.

“It is important for banks and payment platforms seeking to expand digital-asset services to have infrastructure in place from the outset that meets institutional-grade security and operational requirements,” Fireblocks co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Michael Shaulov said. He added that Kakao Pay and KakaoBank are laying that foundation.

Yoon Ho-young, chief executive of KakaoBank and co-head of Kakao Group’s stablecoin task force, said the three companies would study digital-asset services that are safe and convenient based on their technology and capabilities. They will also seek new possibilities to broaden customers’ financial lives, he added.

Shin Won-keun, chief executive of Kakao Pay and the task force’s other co-head, said the domestic digital-asset market needs infrastructure that allows assets to circulate smoothly in order to grow. He added that the partnership with Fireblocks would help lay the groundwork for the broader ecosystem.