BC Card completed a pilot that let foreign visitors convert stablecoins held in overseas wallets into digital prepaid cards accepted by merchants across South Korea. The pilot positioned stablecoins as a funding source while keeping merchant acceptance fully card-native, so retailers never had to custody or handle crypto directly.

How the conversion-and-card model works

The pilot converted stablecoins from international wallets into merchant-ready digital prepaid cards, creating an intermediary step between crypto value and point-of-sale acceptance. By placing conversion before the card is used, the model preserves existing settlement rails and avoids forcing merchants into cryptocurrency workflows. The stablecoins used were not specified, reinforcing that the emphasis was the framework rather than a single token.

Several entities participated alongside BC Card, including Wavebridge, Aaron Group, and Global Money Express. The structure focused on interoperability at the user onramp and the merchant off-ramp, prioritizing a familiar experience for both visitors and retailers. In practice, it looks less like “merchants accepting crypto” and more like “visitors spending card balance that originated from crypto.”

The pilot was framed within broader national activity around digital currency. It was presented alongside ongoing exploration of a CBDC and plans by major financial institutions for won-backed stablecoins, while acknowledging open questions on AML/CFT controls and regulatory alignment. Those unresolved items matter because they define who is accountable for monitoring, reporting, and consumer protections once value moves from an offshore wallet into a domestic spending instrument.

Operationally, the intermediary design reduces complexity for merchants but concentrates responsibility elsewhere. Compliance and control requirements shift toward the conversion and card-issuance nodes, where KYC/AML checks and remittance screening can be centralized and audited. The trade-off is that the model still relies on a conversion trust point that must be governed with strong controls, clear record-keeping, and credible oversight.

BC Card’s pilot shows a practical way to make stablecoins usable for cross-border retail spending without changing merchant infrastructure, while keeping policy focus on AML/CFT, custody, and supervisory coordination.