Visa Teams With Upbit’s Parent to Expand Stablecoin Payments and AI Commerce

Visa has teamed up with Dunamu, the parent company of South Korean crypto exchange Upbit, to explore how stablecoins could be used for payments, cross-border remittances and settlement—while also testing how artificial intelligence could enable more automated, commerce-oriented transactions.

In a partnership announcement issued Friday, Dunamu said the two firms will combine Dunamu’s digital asset technology with Visa’s global payments network to develop services for major markets, spanning payment flows, remittance rails, and settlement mechanisms.

Key takeaways

• Visa and Dunamu are collaborating on stablecoin-based payment, remittance, and settlement services.
• The partnership also targets “agentic commerce,” where AI agents may initiate shopping and payment actions on a user’s behalf.
• Dunamu said it is assessing multiple stablecoin projects rather than committing to a single token.
• The teams are considering payment models that could involve Open Standard’s proposed Open USD (OUSD), though the partnership isn’t limited to it.

Why Visa and Dunamu’s stablecoin push matters

Stablecoins have increasingly been positioned as a way to move value more efficiently across borders, particularly for remittances and settlement use cases. Visa’s involvement signals interest from a major legacy payments network in integrating digital-asset rails into broader payment infrastructure, rather than treating stablecoins as a standalone experiment.

For Dunamu, the partnership also represents an opportunity to connect its digital asset capabilities to a global network designed to reach consumers, merchants, and financial institutions at scale. The combination of Dunamu’s expertise and Visa’s established payments footprint is intended to support new business models across payment and settlement workflows.

Open USD is on the table, but not the only option

A key element of the announcement is that Dunamu and Visa are considering stablecoin structures tied to Open Standard’s proposed Open USD (OUSD), a dollar-backed stablecoin initiative unveiled in June.

According to Open Standard, more than 140 companies have signed up to use OUSD, with Open Standard citing Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, Coinbase and BlackRock among the listed participants. However, Dunamu’s Friday statement clarified that OUSD is only one of several stablecoin projects under review for the partnership. The company said it has not prioritized a specific stablecoin for the initiative.

This matters because it suggests the collaboration is still in a discovery and design phase—potentially focused on interoperability, settlement performance, regulatory fit, and integration pathways—rather than an immediate move toward a single token or issuance plan.

Upbit’s operator clarifies OUSD’s role

The partnership also lands amid ongoing scrutiny around who is actually involved in OUSD issuance. In July, Upbit said it was not participating in the issuance of OUSD after Dunamu, Upbit’s operator, was named among the businesses connected to the initiative.

That earlier clarification highlights a distinction that investors and market participants often look for in stablecoin partnerships: engagement on pilots, integrations, or infrastructure planning can differ significantly from taking part in issuance. With Dunamu now describing a broader evaluation of multiple stablecoin options, readers will likely watch for additional detail on whether the firms will narrow down to one model as testing progresses.

Agentic commerce: AI agents making payments

Beyond stablecoins, Dunamu and Visa said they will also explore “agentic commerce.” In this concept, AI agents can locate products and services, then perform purchasing and payments on a user’s behalf.

The announcement indicates the companies will look at how AI could be connected to stablecoin-based payment and settlement infrastructure—effectively combining automated decision-making with digital-asset rails. If executed, this could change how consumers experience online transactions by shifting certain steps of shopping and checkout into automated workflows.

Still, practical outcomes remain unclear. The partnership signals exploration of how AI and stablecoin payments might work together, but it does not outline specific pilots, product designs, or compliance frameworks for agent-driven transactions.

What to watch next

Visa and Dunamu’s collaboration raises expectations around stablecoin adoption at the payment-network level, but the next visible milestones will likely determine whether the partnership becomes a targeted pilot with a defined token and settlement model—or remains a broad feasibility effort across multiple stablecoins and AI-driven commerce scenarios.