Stablecoins are moving from pilots to production across banking, card networks, and remittances. Three developments this week indicate accelerating adoption and clearer regulatory alignment.
The Bank of Korea (BOK) urged lenders to lead issuance of won-pegged stablecoins, citing banks’ capital, FX, and AML controls as risk mitigants.
In a Monday report, the BOK also called for a joint policy body across currency, FX, and financial authorities to set issuer eligibility, supply limits, and other parameters. At least eight major banks outlined plans in June to issue KRW-stablecoins, with launches targeted for late 2025 and early 2026.
Dr. Sangmin Seo, chair of the Kaia DLT Foundation, criticised the approach as illogical. The disagreement underscores a core design choice: whether stablecoins should be issued by regulated banks under existing prudential rules or by non-bank institutions under bespoke regimes. The BOK’s preference signals a push to contain settlement and liquidity risk inside the banking perimeter while preserving tokenised payment efficiency.
The move comes following Japan’s recent launch of the Yen stablecoin, JPYC, issued by a fintech firm of the same name and regulated under the country’s Payment Services Act.
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Visa expanded its stablecoin posture, saying it will accept and settle with multiple stablecoins across four blockchains, spanning two fiat currencies and conversion into more than 25 traditional currencies on its network.
— Coin Bureau (@coinbureau) October 29, 2025
HUGE:
Visa now supports payments in four stablecoins across four blockchains, convertible into fiat currencies.
Visa also lets banks mint and burn stablecoins.pic.twitter.com/LFylNGOtCH
CEO Ryan McInerney said stablecoin-linked card spending on Visa in Q4 was four times higher than a year ago. The company framed the move as part of a push to speed cross-border settlement, following a pilot launched in September to test stablecoin rails for international transfers.
Meanwhile, Western Union is introducing a Solana-based settlement system and plans a new stablecoin, the US Dollar Payment Token (USDPT), for rollout in the first half of next year.
The stablecoin will be issued by Anchorage Digital, a federally regulated digital-asset bank. Western Union, which serves roughly 100 million users across its payments network, is positioning the token to cut transfer costs and improve settlement speed on public infrastructure.
Taken together, the BOK’s banking-led model, Visa’s multi-chain settlement support, and Western Union’s Solana launch signal that stablecoins are moving into regulated finance, with focus shifting from experimentation to scale.
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