"AI Opens Wallets and Pays with Stablecoins"...Fintechs and Exchanges Race Ahead [Crypto Briefing]

Photo by Yonhap News Agency As the era of "agentic AI" begins—where artificial intelligence (AI) agents autonomously conduct economic activities without human intervention—stablecoins are rapidly emerging as the next-generation financial infrastructure and a core means of payment. AI agents are autonomous software programs that, once given a specific goal by the user, move across multiple systems and datasets, understand the situation, and then call the necessary tools and apps on their own to complete tasks. For example, if a user simply enters a budget and preference such as, "I want to get a new set of golf wear for under 100,000 won by next month," a shopping agent could evolve to automatically scan multiple online malls and price-comparison sites, factor in discounts and inventory, and then select the optimal products and purchase timing before placing them in the cart.
Industry players broadly agree that for AI agents to autonomously handle actual payments in this way, they will need a payment method that is faster and cheaper than today’s traditional fiat currency systems. According to industry sources on the 13th, Kakaopay recently joined the x402 Foundation, a consortium working to standardize stablecoin payments between AI agents, as part of a push to gain an early lead in the agentic AI market. Danal, a major player in Korea’s payments market, has also joined the Agentic AI Foundation, stepping into the race to offer stablecoin-based payment services.
Market analysts say that when AI agents run 24/7 and conduct cross-border e-commerce, blockchain-based stablecoins are more efficient than fiat currencies in terms of both cost and speed. Sungwook Hong, a researcher at NH Investment & Securities, noted, "AI agents are likely to grow into independent economic actors that not only process payments but also generate income and make expenditures on their own, based on stablecoins. " Korbit, a virtual asset exchange in which Mirae Asset Financial Group is seeking to acquire a stake, is moving in earnest into stablecoin-based payments in partnership with Galaxia Moneytree.
The two companies are considering linking Korbit’s trading infrastructure with Galaxia Moneytree’s Moneytree app so that users can convert the virtual assets they hold on Korbit into Moneytree cash and then use it for payments at online and offline merchants. This is an attempt to expand virtual assets from an exchange-based investment vehicle into a payment method used in the real economy.
Under the proposed structure, Korbit would handle virtual asset liquidity provision and settlement, while Galaxia Moneytree would leverage its prepaid electronic payment license to provide the payment infrastructure. The two firms plan to verify service stability and operational processes through a proof of concept (PoC), and then move toward commercialization within the scope of relevant laws and regulatory guidelines.
Lee Jun-ho, a researcher at Hana Securities, commented, "It is positive that domestically listed companies involved with stablecoins are joining global standards," adding, "All companies that pursue related businesses are likely to participate going forward. " He continued, "Global companies, at this early stage of the AI agent economy, are not trying to adopt a single company’s proprietary standard or fully internalize it.
Instead, they are forming alliances to build broadly usable standards, so it will be more effective for Korean firms to adopt global standards as well. " Although the convergence of AI and stablecoins is accelerating, legal and regulatory issues remain a key variable.
In the United States, whether the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act of 2025—a bill to regulate the stablecoin and broader virtual asset markets—will pass in the second half of this year has become a major focus for the market. Lee observed, "We are seeing a trend in the United States, as well as in major Asian markets such as Hong Kong and Japan, where digital assets are moving beyond a supplementary means of payment and into the realm of mainstream financial products.
" He added, "In advanced markets, the incorporation of digital assets into the real economy is essentially a foregone conclusion, and in Korea as well, the need for legislation will be strongly raised. " The industry is also looking ahead to the potential convergence of the Security Token Offering (STO) market with AI agents.
If structures materialize in which AI agents autonomously manage asset portfolios or use tokenized real-world assets (RWA) as collateral for payments, observers expect the boundaries of fintech services to become even more blurred. A source in the virtual asset industry said, "There is ample potential for stablecoins to become the core payment method of the AI-driven economy," but cautioned, "However, since we are still in the early stages of infrastructure competition, the winners and losers will likely be determined by how well regulations align and how complete the services are.
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elikim@fnnews.com Kim Mi-hee Reporter