Shinhan Card and Japan’s SBI businesses are preparing a joint test of yen-denominated stablecoin payments, focusing on spending by travelers between South Korea and Japan as well as settlement for cross-border trade. The companies will also examine safeguards against money laundering and fraud, according to Cointelegraph.
Testing payments across borders
Shinhan Card said Wednesday that it had signed an agreement with SBI VC Trade and SBI XDC Network APAC. The agreement, signed Tuesday, covers three payment use cases: stablecoin card transactions, transfers between digital wallets and cross-border trade settlement.
The initiative is designed to examine whether a yen stablecoin can make payments and settlement more convenient between the two neighboring countries. A stablecoin is a digital asset intended to maintain a stable value relative to an underlying currency or other reference asset. In this case, the test will focus on a token denominated in yen.
The companies will assess the protections needed for travelers using the system, including anti-money-laundering measures and fraud-detection controls. The announcement did not provide details on the stablecoin’s issuer, the test’s timetable or the volume of transactions planned.
Tourism provides a large test market
Travel between Japan and South Korea gives the project a substantial cross-border payments audience. Official tourism figures from the two countries show that travel between them produced more than 10 million visitor arrivals during the first eight months of 2026.
South Korean visitors accounted for 7.42 million arrivals in Japan, making South Korea Japan’s largest source of foreign tourists over that period. Japan recorded 2.7 million arrivals from its neighbor, making Japan the second-largest source of foreign visitors to South Korea.
For travelers, the proposed tests could cover both card-based purchases and direct wallet-to-wallet payments. For businesses, the trade-settlement component will examine whether stablecoins can be used to transfer value across borders in a different way from conventional payment and settlement systems. The announcement did not say that the arrangement would immediately replace existing payment methods.
Firms bring payments and digital-asset expertise
Shinhan Card is one of South Korea’s largest credit card companies. SBI is a major Japanese financial group with operations spanning banking, brokerage, insurance and cryptocurrency exchanges. SBI VC Trade registered in March 2025 as Japan’s first electronic payment instruments exchange service provider, allowing it to handle USDC.
The latest agreement follows a proof-of-concept that Shinhan Card said it completed in April. That earlier exercise covered stablecoin payments and cross-border settlement, while the new pact expands the focus to practical traveler payments and compliance controls.
Moneyiar market picture
Moneyiar data at 10:59 a.m. on October 21, 2026, showed Ethereum at $2,454.9449964229, up 3% over 24 hours but down 1.97% over seven days. The Stable token was priced at $0.0269806706, rising 6.98% in 24 hours and 1.06% over seven days.
Compound stood at $25.4590995758, up 10.41% over 24 hours and 11.33% over seven days. AKEDO was $0.0363254489, with gains of 20.31% over 24 hours and 45.57% over seven days. These figures describe market prices and recent movements; they do not indicate the outcome of the Shinhan-SBI test.
