KB Kookmin Bank will launch a blockchain payment service for import and export companies in August. 

The bank will initially process US dollar payments for those clients over JPMorgan’s Kinexys network. It announced the plan on July 26.

South Korean Bank Moves Dollar Trade Payments Onto JPMorgan Blockchain

Kinexys is JPMorgan’s blockchain unit, formerly known as Onyx. It runs institutional payments, tokenization, and digital asset settlement. In practice, that means corporate clients can move value between accounts using tokenized commercial bank money rather than traditional wire messages, with transfers recorded on a shared ledger that all approved participants can see.

The platform has processed more than trillion since its launch, and average daily transactions exceed billion. Those figures make it one of the most heavily used bank-run blockchain networks, and they signal that tokenized deposits have already moved well beyond the pilot stage for large institutions.

The service will initially support dollar remittances to 10 countries, including South Korea, according to local media reports. The list covers the US, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, India, Thailand, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and South Africa. Korean branches and KB Kookmin’s Singapore office will offer the service. 

For importers and exporters, the appeal is straightforward. Cross-border trade payments have traditionally passed through several correspondent banks, each adding fees, delays, and reconciliation work. Settling those flows on a blockchain network aims to shorten transfer times, reduce the number of intermediaries, and give treasurers clearer visibility into where a payment sits at any moment. That can free up working capital that would otherwise be tied up while funds are in transit.

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This comes just days after KB Kookmin was selected for a government-backed deposit token payment project. The Ministry of Science and ICT and the Korea Internet & Security Agency run the program. A deposit token is essentially a digital claim on money held at a regulated bank, designed to move at blockchain speed while remaining backed one-to-one by conventional bank deposits.

The bank’s participation in both a private JPMorgan network and a public, state-backed initiative underscores how South Korea is trying to build tokenized payment infrastructure on two tracks at once. Whether other Korean lenders adopt Kinexys will test how far tokenized deposits reach beyond JPMorgan’s clients, and how willing rival banks are to route dollar trade flows through a competitor’s network.

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Source: BeInCrypto