Shinhan Card and SBI test yen stablecoin payments for Japanese tourists in South Korea

Japanese tourists in Seoul may soon be able to pay for dinner with a yen stablecoin, swiping a card the way they always have. Shinhan Card, one of South Korea’s best-known credit card issuers, has signed a business agreement with two SBI Group entities to test exactly that. What Shinhan and SBI actually agreed to The agreement was signed on October 20, 2026, in Tokyo. Shinhan Card’s partners are SBI VC Trade and SBI XDC Network APAC, both part of Japan’s SBI Group. Shinhan Card President Park Chang-hoon put pen to paper alongside Tomohiko Kondo, Representative Director of SBI VC Trade. The headline use case is simple. Japanese travelers visiting South Korea would use yen-denominated stablecoins linked to a payment card. For the person at the register, the experience is meant to feel like a normal credit card transaction. The pilot goes beyond tourist shopping. It will also explore wallet-to-wallet transfers, where users send stablecoins directly between digital wallets. The third piece is faster cross-border trade settlement between the two countries. That part would run on blockchain technology supplied by SBI XDC Network APAC. The compliance layer The PoC will evaluate anti-money...