Chainlink partners with LG CNS on Korean stablecoin infrastructure

LG CNS, the IT services affiliate of South Korea's LG Group, has entered a strategic partnership with blockchain data and connectivity provider Chainlink. In a press release on Oct. 22 (U.S. time), Chainlink said the two companies will expand the utility and distribution of Korean stablecoins and bring the full Chainlink platform into the digital asset platform LG CNS is building for Korean financial institutions. The companies did not disclose financial terms, a rollout schedule or which issuer's stablecoin the work would apply to first.

Chainlink provides "oracle" services that feed off-chain data such as exchange rates and prices onto blockchains, along with technology that connects different blockchains. LINK is the token used for these services.

Oracles and cross-chain links for an institutional platform

Chainlink listed three areas of cooperation.

• Applying Chainlink's cross-chain, data and orchestration infrastructure to the LG CNS digital asset platform
• Jointly helping define next-generation technical standards for Korea's digital asset economy
• Building solutions for Korean institutions based on oracle and interoperability standards

Chainlink described Korea as Asia's second-largest digital asset market, citing a market size of $68 billion and more than 11 million eligible users. It also pointed out that the Korean won consistently ranks second only to the U.S. dollar in crypto trading volume.

"Korea's financial infrastructure is entering the tokenization era."

Hongkeun Kim, Executive Vice President and head of Digital Business Division, LG CNS

Kim said LG CNS and Chainlink aim to accelerate the growth of Korea's tokenized securities market by enabling secure interoperability and real-world data. Johann Eid, chief business officer of Chainlink Labs, said the partnership gives Korean institutions a foundation for moving tokenized money across systems and networks.

A follow-up to the MOU signed at KITL's launch

The tie-up was previewed earlier this month. On Oct. 6, LG CNS launched its blockchain infrastructure platform KITL and said it had signed memorandums of understanding (MOUs) with five global blockchain companies, including Chainlink. The other four are USDC issuer Circle, tokenized securities platform Securitize, the Canton Foundation and blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis. At the time, LG CNS described Chainlink as a company that supplies external data such as exchange rates and fund net asset values to blockchains and connects different blockchains, and said it would pursue integrating Chainlink's services with KITL.

KITL offers four functions that banks, securities firms, card companies and payment firms need to build stablecoin, security token offering (STO) and real-world asset (RWA) services: digital wallets, transaction processing, gas fee sponsorship and transaction history collection. According to LG CNS, the platform is designed so institutions can keep using the same infrastructure when they add blockchains beyond Ethereum, such as Solana. LG CNS said financial firms are speeding up preparations as discussions on Korea's Digital Asset Basic Act gather pace, and that it would help institutions launch services as soon as the rules take effect.

The builder behind the Bank of Korea's Project Hangang

In the release, Chainlink described LG CNS as the lead contractor for Project Hangang, the Bank of Korea's digital currency pilot. LG CNS has built and operated the project's digital currency infrastructure, and its first phase involved about 80,000 customers across seven Korean banks. LG CNS said it validated KITL's wallet technology in that pilot, where customers made real payments at convenience stores and supermarkets. Chainlink says revenue from enterprise adoption is converted into LINK tokens and stored in its "Chainlink Reserve," but it did not say what fee structure applies to this partnership.

LINK trades above 16,000 won on Upbit

Chainlink (LINK) trades on both Upbit and Bithumb in the Korean won market. As of 12:30 p.m. KST on Oct. 23, one LINK traded at 16,310 won on Upbit, up 1.9% from the previous day, and at 16,300 won on Bithumb. At the same time, LINK was at $12.21 on Binance, little changed from 24 hours earlier, and the Upbit price was about 0.8% above the Binance price converted to won — the kimchi premium (the gap between prices on Korean exchanges and global markets). The eight-hour funding rate on Binance's LINK perpetual futures was close to 0.00%.