MoonPay, a global crypto asset payments and stablecoin infrastructure company, said on Tuesday it has established a Korean unit, MoonPay Korea, and will step up its domestic business.

MoonPay plans to develop South Korea as a key base for expanding its business across Asia. It aims to validate service localisation with local partners, integration with financial systems and customer experience through MoonPay Korea, then expand to Asian markets tailored to each country’s conditions.

MoonPay views South Korea as a market where it can connect global digital financial infrastructure to real services because banks, card companies, lifestyle platforms and the blockchain ecosystem are developed together. It is focusing on specific demand related to cross-border fund transfers, including overseas remittances by international students, payments in South Korea by foreigners, corporate overseas payments, and global distribution of domestic digital assets.

To target the South Korean market, MoonPay will focus on building a "Last Mile" that connects its global infrastructure to actual financial services. It plans to work with domestic financial institutions and platforms to define roles covering customer identification, fund flows, payments and settlement, and customer protection, and to localise services such as won deposits and withdrawals and local payment methods. After meeting service-by-service requirements, including reporting as a virtual asset service provider and obtaining approvals, permits and registrations, it plans to expand domestic services in stages.

MoonPay is pursuing cooperation in a range of areas with companies including Finger, Woori Bank, KB Financial Group and KakaoBank, from linking global financial infrastructure to domestic systems to distribution of won stablecoins, cross-border remittance and payments, and digital asset financial services.

Eboo Keon (이부건), MoonPay co-founder and head of Asia, said, "Korea is an important market where finance and digital services have developed rapidly." He added, "We will connect MoonPay’s global payments and stablecoin infrastructure with domestic financial institutions and companies to implement real services, and on that basis expand into the Asian market."