Visa joins hands with Upbit Group to expand stablecoin payments and AI commerce

Visa and Dunamu have reached a strategic cooperation to explore stablecoin payments and AI commerce

Visa and Dunamu, the parent company of South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Upbit, recently announced the establishment of a strategic partnership. The two parties will jointly explore stablecoin applications such as payments, cross-border remittances, settlement services and AI-driven commerce. According to Dunamu's announcement on Friday, the two companies plan to combine Dunamu's digital asset technology with Visa's global payment infrastructure to study product and service opportunities in key markets. This cooperation also involves the use of artificial intelligence to achieve "agent-based commerce," in which AI agents search for goods or services on their behalf and complete the purchase and payment process on behalf of users.

Core Points

Visa and Dunamu will rely on Visa's existing network to test stablecoin-based payment, remittance and settlement application scenarios. This cooperation regards stablecoins, tokenization and artificial intelligence as interconnected trends reshaping the financial and business landscape. Dunamu said it is evaluating multiple stablecoin options and has not limited cooperation to a single project. According to Dunamu, Open Standard's dollar-linked stablecoin OUSD is one of the options being considered. The two sides also plan to study AI"proxy commerce" scenarios, combining AI-driven purchasing behaviors with stablecoin payment channels.

Why Visa and Dunamu focus on stablecoins

In its announcement, Dunamu listed stablecoins, tokenization and artificial intelligence as key forces expected to "change the way finance and business operate." Its clear goal is to connect digital asset capabilities with traditional finance, and Visa's payment network coverage can be an important complement to this goal. Initiatives centered on stablecoins are increasingly targeting real-world payment and settlement pain points, especially frictions in cross-border value transfers. By combining Visa's network with Dunamu's digital asset expertise, the partnership shows the two parties are trying to move beyond the pilot phase and towards a viable integration model-although the two companies did not specify a timetable or specific deployment details in the announcement.

OUSD enters discussion, but Dunamu remains open

As part of their exploration, Dunamu and Visa said they are considering a business model involving Open Standard's Open USD (OUSD). OUSD is a dollar-pegged stablecoin launched in June this year. Open Standard said more than 140 companies have registered to use OUSD and named institutions such as Visa, MasterCard, Stripe, Coinbase and BlackRock. However, Dunamu pointed out that OUSD is only one of several stablecoin projects it is evaluating. At the same time, the cooperation did not prioritize a specific stablecoin for specific tasks, indicating that current efforts are still focused on feasibility and structure rather than committing to a single asset design. This is important for market participants because stablecoin cooperation often depends on factors such as compliance expectations, issuer and reserve arrangements, and interoperability-factors that can vary significantly between different options. Dunamu's position suggests that the cooperation may retain room for flexibility as regulatory and technical requirements evolve.

Upbit clarifies scope of cooperation

Before the news was released, there was already discussion in the market about OUSD and Upbit. In July this year, after Dunamu was listed as one of the institutions participating in the Open Standard program, Upbit said it was not participating in the OUSD launch. This clarification suggests that a link to the stablecoin roadmap through partnerships or infrastructure assessments does not necessarily mean that Upbit itself is directly involved in the issuance. For users and investors concerned about the introduction of stablecoins, this distinction highlights the possible differences in the roles of each party-issuers, service providers, trading platforms and network integrators can participate in it in different capacities without having to bear exactly the same responsibilities.

Proxy commerce: Combination of AI proxy and stablecoin channels

In addition to payments and remittances, Visa and Dunamu said they will also explore "proxy commerce." Specifically, this refers to an AI agent capable of identifying goods or services and performing transactions on behalf of the user (which may include searching, selecting, and paying). The two companies will study how to combine AI with stablecoin-based payment and settlement infrastructure. Although the announcement did not provide technical details, the direction is very clear: stablecoins are not only positioned as an alternative to traditional settlement mechanisms, but are also regarded as part of the end-to-end technology stack and are expected to automate the purchase process. For developers and businesses, this raises questions about how AI decision-making, payment authorizations, and compliance checks can be integrated. It also suggests that future implementation may focus on controlling risks (such as fraud and unauthorized spending) while maintaining the speed and global accessibility that stablecoin settlements can provide.

Follow-up Focus

The cooperation between Visa and Dunamu is still in the exploratory stage and is not a promise to launch a stablecoin product soon. Next developments worth noting include whether the two companies will choose between stablecoin options that can be effectively integrated, how to build settlement and compliance workflows, and whether the agency-based business concept can move from the planning stage to the testing implementation stage.