Key Highlights
Toss Bank and the Solana Foundation signed a memorandum of understanding in Seoul, calling it the first direct one-to-one strategic partnership between a South Korean internet-only bank and the Solana Foundation.
The MOU starts with testing and feasibility work, but Toss Bank's 15 million customers are named as the eventual target audience for faster and cheaper international transfers built on Solana's infrastructure.
The partnership arrives as South Korea prepares new rules for virtual asset transfer services, adding regulatory momentum to an area where traditional banks are increasingly looking to blockchain rails to reduce cost and settlement time in cross-border payments.
South Korea's Toss Bank has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Solana Foundation to explore blockchain-based infrastructure for global payments, beginning with a proof of concept for cross-border remittances using stablecoins. The agreement was signed in Seoul on June 19 and disclosed on June 22. The bank described the deal as the first direct one-to-one strategic partnership between a South Korean internet-only bank and the Solana Foundation, a distinction that underlines both the novelty of banks engaging directly with public blockchain networks and the growing interest among established financial institutions in using high-throughput chains for settlement infrastructure.
The initial scope of work is a feasibility study and proof of concept examining whether Solana's network can support overseas transfers faster and at lower cost than traditional correspondent banking rails. Toss Bank said the goal is to test whether stablecoin-denominated transfers can replicate the experience of existing banking flows while reducing friction, fees, and settlement time. The bank has roughly 15 million customers and operates entirely online without physical branches, a model that makes cross-border payment efficiency particularly important since overseas transfer fees represent a meaningful cost for its user base. The MOU covers remittances and settlement as the first workstream, with digital asset services named as a potential later phase depending on how the initial testing develops.
Lily Liu, chair of the Solana Foundation, said the partnership could help set a new standard for faster and smoother global remittances by combining bank trust with blockchain efficiency. The framing reflects the broader pitch that public blockchain networks have been making to regulated financial institutions: that permissionless settlement infrastructure can complement existing bank rails rather than replace them, allowing institutions to retain customer relationships and regulatory standing while cutting out the correspondent bank intermediaries that add cost and delay to international transfers. The announcement lands as South Korea is developing new rules specifically governing virtual asset transfer services nationwide, adding a regulatory context that could affect how stablecoin remittance products are ultimately structured and licensed if the proof of concept advances to a live service.
