Wavebridge, BC Card test overseas stablecoin QR payments

Wavebridge has completed a QR payment proof of concept with BC Card, linking overseas blockchain wallets to South Korea's card payment network.

The exercise showed that a foreign visitor could use a Base network wallet holding USDC to pay a domestic BC Card QR merchant, while the merchant would continue to settle in Korean won. The work was carried out in a test environment using Base testnet and pre-production systems to meet current regulatory requirements.

Wavebridge handled the part of the transaction that receives and holds the customer's stablecoins before converting them into won and sending the funds into the card settlement process. BC Card provided the payment rails and QR module used in the test.

The project addressed a practical issue in linking blockchain payments to existing retail payments infrastructure. A stablecoin held in a wallet cannot reach a merchant as a won-denominated settlement without a separate conversion step, and the test connected that process to BC Card's existing settlement system.

In the trial, Wavebridge verified the full sequence from receiving stablecoins matching the purchase amount from a user wallet, to custody, conversion into won and transfer into the card settlement flow. It said this formed the core settlement segment needed to make a blockchain wallet payment work within South Korea's established merchant payments network.

Refund process

The proof of concept also addressed a long-standing difficulty in blockchain-based payments: reversing a transaction after it has been recorded on-chain. It linked BC Card's cancellation and settlement process with Wavebridge's on-chain asset return process.

This structure was used to verify that stablecoins could be returned to the customer's wallet if a payment was cancelled or failed. The test showed that a blockchain-based payment could support cancellations and refunds in a way comparable to conventional card payments.

The work comes as South Korea sees rising inbound tourism. Citing Korea Tourism Organisation figures, the companies said the country welcomed 18.94 million foreign visitors in 2025, above the previous peak recorded in 2019.

This has increased interest in ways for overseas visitors to spend digital assets directly at local merchants without first changing money into won. Under the model tested by Wavebridge and BC Card, foreign users could pay from an overseas wallet while merchants would keep existing terminals and continue to receive settlement in local currency.

Wavebridge said the Korea Financial Intelligence Unit has accepted its virtual-asset service provider notification. Founded in 2018, the company also said it obtained ISMS certification in 2025 and operates custody and over-the-counter brokerage services alongside its work on stablecoin conversion and settlement systems.

Base, the blockchain network used in the test, is a public network built by Coinbase. Wavebridge described itself as a blockchain technology company and ecosystem builder on Base, and said the wallet used in the trial ran on that network.

John Oh, Chief Executive Officer of Wavebridge, described the conversion stage as central to making such payments work within the existing retail system. "For a stablecoin sitting in a wallet to reach a merchant as a won-denominated settlement, the conversion segment in between has to mesh with the existing payment infrastructure," he said.

"As a VASP whose notification has been accepted by KoFIU, we intend to operate the stretch from custody through fiat conversion in full compliance with applicable regulatory requirements as we move toward commercialization, and to widen the path that connects overseas wallets to Korea's payment network," Oh said.

BC Card framed the result as a test of whether South Korea's established card network could handle a stablecoin payment model without changing how merchants are paid. It said its merchant network covers 3.5 million businesses.

"This PoC is a meaningful case that actually implemented and verified that Korea's card payment infrastructure can operate reliably even in a global stablecoin payment service," said Young-woo Kim, Chief Executive Officer of BC Card.

"In line with the KT Group's 'digital-asset-based digital finance platform' strategy, we will keep strengthening our capabilities so that BC Card's 3.5 million-merchant network and global settlement infrastructure become a core hub for global stablecoin payments," Kim said.