Summary

  • Roland Berger said South Korean financial institutions need to focus on distribution networks and expanding real-world use, rather than issuance, to succeed in the won stablecoin business.
  • The firm said the adoption of stablecoins could create new revenue streams and business opportunities in cross-border payments, business-to-business transactions, AI agent-based payments, and RWA tokenization.
  • Roland Berger said the world’s largest won NDF market could become a source of demand for won stablecoins if it shifts to an on-chain model, opening new market opportunities for financial institutions and platform operators.

Forecast Trend Report by Period

Roland Berger, the global management consulting firm, said South Korean financial institutions should focus on distribution networks rather than issuance if they want businesses built around won-based stablecoins to succeed. It also said a broader rollout of stablecoins could create new revenue streams across the domestic financial industry.

Kim Eun-young, a partner at Roland Berger, made the comments on Nov. 11 at a seminar in Yeouido Post Tower titled “The Stablecoin Era and the Future of Cross-Border Payments in South Korea.” He said the key in the stablecoin market is not issuance itself, but how much actual circulation and use can be expanded.

Roland Berger has advised on central bank digital currency projects in Europe and stablecoin businesses in the Middle East.

Kim outlined four major business opportunities for South Korea’s financial industry in the digital-asset market: digital cash for cross-border payments, new stablecoin use cases such as business-to-business transactions, payments based on artificial intelligence agents, and platforms for tokenizing real-world assets, or RWAs.

“Stablecoins can improve the high transaction costs and complex settlement procedures in the existing financial system,” Kim said. They could sharply reduce costs in cross-border payments in particular, creating new business opportunities.

He also identified B2B transactions and AI-based payments as promising areas. The market for AI agents making direct payments through stablecoins will grow quickly, Kim said. To support that, the identity and payment authority of AI agents must be verified, and merchants must have infrastructure that can accept stablecoin payments.

Kim also pointed to growth potential in the RWA tokenization market. As the tokenization of financial assets expands, stablecoins will play a larger role in trading and settlement, he said. If related regulations become clearer, South Korean financial institutions could also secure new business opportunities.

He also said stablecoins could have a positive effect across the financial industry’s value chain. As examples, he cited interest income from managing reserve assets, fee income from exchanges between fiat currencies and stablecoins, and revenue from providing infrastructure. Stablecoins can be used broadly across financial services, from issuance and reserve-asset management to distribution, infrastructure, settlement, trading, payments and treasury management, Kim said. That could open new revenue sources not only for banks, card companies and securities firms, but also for technology and platform operators.

Kim also offered a new angle on concerns that won stablecoins may struggle to attract demand. He identified the offshore non-deliverable forward, or NDF, market for the won — the world’s largest — as a potential source of demand for stablecoins.

“The won has the world’s largest NDF market, with about $68 billion traded on average each day,” Kim said. “If that trading shifts to an on-chain model, it could create a substantial opportunity for stablecoin distribution.”

If foreign-exchange trading now centered on NDFs expands into won-based on-chain transactions, both financial institutions and platform operators could enter a new market, he said. He added that the foreign-exchange market needs to pay attention to the shift and lay the groundwork for on-chain trading.

Finally, drawing on Roland Berger’s experience with stablecoin projects in the Middle East, Kim again stressed the importance of securing distribution networks. Regulatory approval and anti-money-laundering, or AML, systems are important, he said, but the ultimate determinant of success is the scale of actual circulation and the user experience. South Korean financial institutions should work with a range of businesses to broaden stablecoin use cases, he added.

Uk Jin