Dunamu, the operator of the Upbit cryptocurrency exchange, has partnered with Visa to develop stablecoin payments and cross-border remittance services. The companies announced the partnership at Visa's Global Market Support Center in San Francisco, with the agreement also covering AI-driven financial services. Upbit is one of South Korea's largest cryptocurrency exchanges, and the deal marks a step by a major Korean digital asset firm into mainstream payment infrastructure.

The deal combines Dunamu's digital asset technology with Visa's global payment network. Under the plan, Upbit's existing custody, transfer, and anti-money-laundering tools will be incorporated. For Visa, working with an exchange operator's compliance stack matters because custody and AML capabilities are prerequisites for connecting digital assets to regulated payment rails.

Dunamu and Visa Explore OUSD Payments and AI Commerce

The two firms will jointly study stablecoin payments for international transfers, cross-border remittances, and settlement. Neither company has disclosed the structure of any planned service. Cross-border remittance is a common target for stablecoin projects because traditional corridors often involve multiple intermediaries, settlement delays, and fees that the World Bank has long identified as a drag on migrant transfers.

The partnership also covers agentic commerce, in which an AI agent searches for a product or service on the user's behalf and then completes the purchase and payment. Stablecoins are frequently discussed as a machine-readable payment method suited to such automated transactions, since agents cannot easily open conventional bank accounts.

Visa and Dunamu (Upbit parent) partner to explore stablecoin payments and AI agents on traditional rails. pic.twitter.com/Ati3nNOWbU — MSB Intel (@MSBIntel) August 28, 2026

The companies will examine OUSD-based stablecoin payment models. The dollar-backed token is being developed by Open Standard and has not yet launched. Its consortium includes Visa, Mastercard, BlackRock, Circle, and more than 140 other institutions. Unlike company-operated stablecoins such as USDT and USDC, OUSD is designed as shared infrastructure with independent governance. Under the new arrangement, most of the reserve will be returned to the institutions that provide OUSD, and the token will not collect any issuance or redemption fees.

Visa Advances Asian Stablecoin Partnerships With Shinhan

OUSD was one of several stablecoins reviewed by Dunamu. A company representative reportedly said the firm was neither prioritizing nor discarding any particular coin.

Dunamu and several other South Korean firms had previously been named as members of the Open Standard partner consortium, but they later denied having any formal agreement to become partners.

Visa has been expanding its stablecoin efforts in Asia through partnerships. On August 24, it signed an agreement with Shinhan Financial Group to test issuance, remittance, and redemption — Shinhan's second stablecoin partnership in four months. Visa also joined BLOOM, an initiative of the Monetary Authority of Singapore that links existing payment systems with regulated stablecoin systems. Participants in that project included J.P. Morgan, DBS, and Circle. The Dunamu deal extends a pattern in which the card network pairs with local financial and crypto institutions market by market rather than rolling out services directly.

Visa Reports $7B in Annualized Stablecoin Payments

According to Visa, stablecoin payments reached $7 billion in annualized settlement volume in April. The company is running pilots on nine blockchain networks and works with more than 130 stablecoin-linked card programs spanning roughly 40 countries worldwide.

Dunamu and Visa have not specified target countries for the services under development. The project also depends on digital asset regulation in South Korea, where the Digital Asset Basic Act is currently awaiting approval in the National Assembly. The proposed rules could restrict the issuance of won-backed stablecoins to entities at least 51% owned by commercial banks, and the Bank of Korea has warned about risks from non-bank issuers. As an exchange operator rather than a bank, Dunamu falls outside the categories the bill would empower to issue won-backed tokens, which is one reason the partnership centers on a dollar-backed model like OUSD.

No launch schedule has been announced. Until the legislation passes and the companies finalize their business plans, the timing of the payment services' launch remains uncertain.