Visa and Dunamu, operator of South Korea’s Upbit exchange, have formed a strategic partnership to explore stablecoin payments, cross-border remittances and AI-enabled commerce. The companies plan to combine Dunamu’s digital-asset infrastructure with Visa’s global payment network to develop new settlement models across major markets. The agreement brings stablecoin infrastructure and agentic payments under the same exploratory framework, but no commercial product or launch date has been finalized.
The partnership roadmap was presented in San Francisco by Dunamu CEO Oh Kyung-seok and Visa Global President Oliver Jenkyn. South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency reported that the companies will develop services gradually while considering applicable laws and regulatory requirements. The collaboration is therefore at the development stage rather than representing an already deployed stablecoin payment network.
Stablecoins Move Closer to Payment Infrastructure
Stablecoin payments, international transfers and settlement are the first major focus. Dunamu brings technology developed around digital-asset trading, custody and transfers, while Visa contributes its existing global payment infrastructure. The objective is to connect blockchain-based value transfer with financial and merchant systems already operating at global scale.
Open Standard’s OUSD is among the stablecoins being evaluated, but the companies have not committed to using it exclusively. Dunamu has clarified that it is considering multiple stablecoin projects and will assess factors including market demand, regulation, stability and suitability before selecting specific assets. OUSD should therefore be viewed as one potential component of the partnership, not its confirmed settlement currency.
Visa already operates stablecoin settlement infrastructure independently of the Dunamu agreement. In April, Visa said its stablecoin settlement pilot had reached a $7 billion annualized run rate after growing 50% quarter over quarter. The company subsequently launched the Visa Stablecoin Platform, or VSP, for institutional stablecoin minting, movement and management. Those existing capabilities provide technical context for the partnership, although Visa has not said that VSP will necessarily power every Dunamu service.
AI Agents Add a New Commerce Layer
The second pillar is agentic commerce, where AI systems can search for products or services and initiate authorized purchases on a user’s behalf. Visa and Dunamu plan to examine the payment and settlement infrastructure required for those workflows, including combinations of AI and stablecoin rails. The challenge is enabling greater automation without weakening identity, authorization and transaction-control requirements.
Visa has already been developing that model through its broader Intelligent Commerce strategy. Its Intelligent Commerce Connect initiative is designed to connect AI agents, merchants and payment providers while preserving conventional payment controls. The Dunamu partnership extends that exploration into digital-asset settlement rather than establishing autonomous crypto payments as a finished product.
The agreement creates an opportunity to apply infrastructure developed around Upbit to payments and settlement outside exchange trading. For Visa, it adds a major South Korean digital-asset operator to its expanding stablecoin ecosystem. The partnership’s significance will ultimately depend on which products reach production, which stablecoins are selected and how regulators treat the resulting payment structures.
