The Bank of Korea’s tokenized reserves completed live cross-border settlement testing under BIS Project Agorá in July 2026, processing CHF 800,000 across 17 payment scenarios alongside 27 other central banks and private financial institutions. Individual transaction values ranged from approximately CHF 9,000 to CHF 125,000, or local-currency equivalents.
The exercise covered six currencies: the Korean won, US dollar, euro, British pound, Swiss franc and Japanese yen. South Korean commercial banks participating included KB Kookmin Bank, NongHyup Bank, Shinhan Bank, Woori Bank and Hana Bank.
Bank of Korea Tokenized Reserves: What the Live Test Covered
The test scenarios included single- and dual-currency settlements between companies and banks, payment-versus-payment FX settlements, and intra-group fund transfers. For the domestic leg, the Bank of Korea worked with NongHyup Bank and Shinhan Bank to transfer 20 million won using tokenised reserve funds, issuing, transferring, and redeeming those reserves on the Project Agorá platform.
The process required a manual bridge between Project Hangang, the Bank of Korea’s wholesale central bank digital currency (wCBDC) platform, and the central bank’s existing financial network. That interoperability check is the piece that matters most for any future production deployment: the plumbing has to work with legacy infrastructure, not replace it outright.
Separately, KB Kookmin Bank became the first South Korean commercial bank to complete a deposit-token payment test with an overseas counterpart, settling a yen-denominated transaction with Japan’s MUFG Bank. The bank said the outcome would inform its participation in future Project Agorá phases.
Project Agorá, launched in April 2024 and named after the Greek word for marketplace, is co-convened by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and the Institute of International Finance (IIF). According to the BIS, it now spans eight central banks and more than 40 private financial institutions. The Bank of Canada joined in May 2026 as the eighth member, alongside the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Bank of England, Bank of France (representing the Eurosystem), Bank of Japan, Bank of Mexico, Swiss National Bank and Bank of Korea, as confirmed by the Bank of Canada.
The IIF describes the prototype as enabling atomic, multi-currency settlement of wholesale cross-border payments on an around-the-clock basis, combining tokenised commercial bank deposits with tokenised central bank reserves on a shared programmable platform.
Project Hangang’s Commercial Expansion Gathers Pace
The Agorá results feed into a broader domestic push. Phase 2 of Project Hangang authorises up to 500,000 consumers to hold deposit-token wallets across nine participating banks, with large-scale live transactions targeting a September 2026 start, according to TechTimes.
The Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) and the Korea Internet and Security Agency (KISA) are running a separate ₩9.6 billion ($6.7 million) programme to connect the deposit-token network to existing point-of-sale infrastructure. South Korea named Toss Payments, the payment-gateway arm of Viva Republica, as preferred negotiator for that contract, with real-world merchant testing scheduled for the second half of 2026.
Of that budget, approximately ₩3 billion ($2.1 million) is earmarked for development, operations and promotional activity targeting small and medium-sized enterprises, startups and IT firms. The project is led by the Korea Financial Telecommunications and Clearings Institute (KFTC) and includes nine commercial banks, eight payment gateway providers and two large merchants, according to Crypto.news.
Critically, the architecture does not require merchants to replace existing terminals. Banks issue deposit-token wallets; merchants keep their current point-of-sale systems. Government agencies are also planning deposit-token tests for public-sector payments before integrating the technology with South Korea’s digital public finance platform.
The Bank of Korea has consistently drawn a hard line between deposit tokens and stablecoins. Deposit tokens represent commercial bank deposits issued through a wCBDC framework operated by the central bank; stablecoins are separately issued digital assets backed by reserve assets under their own regulatory model.
Governor Shin Hyun-song, who took office in April, has anchored the Bank of Korea’s digital finance agenda on wholesale CBDCs and tokenised bank deposits rather than privately issued stablecoins. His earlier work at the BIS argued that multiple privately issued stablecoins risk fragmenting payment systems, though he has since signalled greater openness to stablecoins operating alongside CBDCs under a suitable framework.
Lawmakers are working on a Digital Asset Basic Act that would consolidate ten pending digital asset proposals, covering stablecoin issuance, exchanges, disclosures, governance and operational resilience. The Financial Services Commission has not published a final draft or announced a submission date. A policy report from Hashed Open Research and the Solana Policy Institute recommended interim licensing guidance for won-backed stablecoins before the full legislation is in place.
The Bank of Korea has said additional Bank of Korea tokenized reserves tests will follow as Project Agorá expands to cover payment types and operational scenarios not included in the July round. The September 2026 Phase 2 target for Project Hangang is the next concrete checkpoint worth watching.
