Hecto Financial is expected to deliver record results this year, with scalability in its stablecoin-based payment and settlement business coming into focus.

iM Securities said on May 4 that profitability improvement is expected to accelerate as the high-margin structure of its membership-based simple cash payment service takes hold in earnest.

Sang-heon Lee (이상헌), an analyst at iM Securities, said profitability improvement will proceed quickly as sales of its own membership-based high-margin services start to rise in earnest. He said the foundation for earnings growth is being strengthened as new merchants sign up and its domestic merchant network expands.

He forecast that this year consolidated revenue under K-IFRS will rise 18.1 percent from a year earlier to 221.3 billion won, while operating profit will increase 50.6 percent to 23.5 billion won, making record results possible.

In its stablecoin business, the possibility of expanding into global payment and settlement infrastructure is drawing attention. If legislation is introduced in the future to legalise won-denominated stablecoins, it could also serve as a global payment hub by linking CPN with the wallet infrastructure of Hecto Wallet One.

The company is also pushing business initiatives to respond to changes in the consumer environment driven by AI. It has begun a proof of concept to build an automatic stablecoin payment system in line with the spread of "agentic commerce," in which AI handles everything from product discovery to payment.

iM Securities said blockchain-based digital currencies are emerging as an alternative more suitable for micro and high-frequency payments than existing card- or account-based payment methods as transactions between agents increase.