Chainlink and LG CNS partner on Korea’s digital assets, but no won stablecoin, bank or date is named

Chainlink announced on Thursday 22 October a “strategic partnership” with LG CNS, the IT services arm of South Korea’s LG Group and the lead contractor of the Bank of Korea’s Project Hangang. In a press release distributed on PR Newswire at 16:00 ET (20:00 UTC), Chainlink said its blockchain (oracle) è un servizio che fornisce dati esterni, come prezzi degli asset, tassi di interesse, risultati sportivi o meteo, agli smart contract, che da soli non possono accedere a informazioni fuori dalla propria blockchain.">oracle and cross-chain infrastructure will go into LG CNS’s platform for Korean financial institutions, and that the two firms will work on “expanding the utility and distribution of Korean stablecoins”.

Chainlink’s text does not say which stablecoin, which issuer, which bank, which blockchain or when. It gives no financial terms. The two names are not new to each other either: Chainlink was one of five companies LG CNS signed memoranda of understanding with on 6 October, the day it launched its KITL blockchain platform.

The Chainlink LG CNS deal reads more like a framework than a launch. It places the best-known blockchain oracle network next to the company that built the central bank’s deposit-token pilot, in a country where a won stablecoin still has no legal basis.

What the Chainlink and LG CNS partnership covers

The release lists three areas of work. First, oracle infrastructure for what LG CNS calls its Digital Asset Platform Solution: Chainlink supplies cross-chain, data and orchestration tools so the platform can connect blockchain networks with the internal systems of institutions. Second, Korea’s digital asset framework, where the two firms say they will help define next-generation technical standards. Third, products for Korean institutions built on oracle, interoperability and cross-chain standards, which the release says are “needed to scale regulated digital assets across Korea”.

An oracle, in blockchain terms, is the service that brings outside data (an exchange rate, a fund’s net asset value, a reserve balance) onto a chain so that smart contracts can use it. It is the core of what Chainlink sells, as our Chainlink project page explains.

Johann Eid, Chief Business Officer of Chainlink Labs, called Korea “one of the most active and technologically advanced digital asset markets in the world” and described the deal as a foundation “for moving tokenized money across systems and networks”. Hongkeun Kim, executive vice president and head of LG CNS’s Digital Business Division, said that “Korea’s financial infrastructure is entering the tokenization era”.

Kim’s comments are worth reading closely. He spoke of growing Korea’s tokenized securities market with interoperability and real-world data, and of later expansion abroad. He did not mention stablecoins.

No issuer, bank, chain, terms or date in the release

Coindaro read the full release. Two outlets that covered it reached the same reading: Genfinity noted that it names no launch date, partner bank or target blockchain, and Bitcoin.com News wrote that it gave no financial terms, customers or deployment timetable.

• No Chainlink product is named. The text mentions neither CCIP, Chainlink’s cross-chain protocol, nor Proof of Reserve.
• No stablecoin issuer is tied to the deal, and no Korean bank is named as a partner or a client.
• No target blockchain is given; the release only speaks of connecting blockchain networks.
• No launch date, no timeline and no financial terms appear.
• The KITL platform that LG CNS launched on 6 October is not mentioned by name.

The wording leaves one more question open. Chainlink wrote “Korean stablecoins”, not won stablecoins. The Block, which reported the deal at 22:48 EDT on 22 October, put “Korean won stablecoin” in its headline, but its own text keeps Chainlink’s phrase. Nothing in the release says which reading is meant.

Coindaro found no statement on LG CNS’s own channels. Every English-language article published so far traces back to one document, Chainlink’s release.

The $68 billion figure is Chainlink’s, with no source

The release opens by putting the value of Korea’s digital asset market at $68 billion. That is Chainlink’s number, and Chainlink does not say where it comes from.

The contrast with the rest of the text is plain. The release links a source for two other claims: the “more than 11 million eligible users” points to the Financial Services Commission’s website, and the statement that the won ranks second behind the US dollar in crypto trading volume points to a Kaiko report. It also calls Korea Asia’s second-largest digital asset market. The $68 billion carries no link and no attribution.

Nor does the release say what the figure measures: the value of the market, the holdings of Korean investors or trading volume, three very different things. Coindaro found no independent source for it. The Block and Bitcoin.com News both repeated it without saying where it came from. Until Chainlink or LG CNS gives a basis, it is a company claim, not a market statistic, and Coindaro does not use it as one.

A follow-up to the 6 October KITL memorandum

On 6 October, LG CNS launched KITL, a blockchain infrastructure platform for banks, securities firms and other financial institutions that want to build stablecoin, tokenized securities and real-world asset services. According to The Korea Times, it does four jobs: digital wallets, transaction processing, payment of network fees on behalf of users, and collection of transaction data for reconciliation and audits. It works across several networks, Solana among them, and grew out of the Hangang work, where it was tested with seven banks and about 80,000 customers.

The same day, LG CNS signed memoranda of understanding with Circle, Securitize, the Canton Foundation, Chainalysis and Chainlink. Ledger Insights summed up Chainlink’s part as helping to feed data onto blockchains. Sixteen days later, Chainlink presents the relationship as a strategic partnership. The release does not say what changed between the memorandum and the partnership.

Project Hangang is LG CNS’s contract, not Chainlink’s

Hangang is in the release because of LG CNS’s résumé: the company is lead contractor of the Bank of Korea’s project and builds and runs its infrastructure. The release recalls that the first phase involved about 80,000 customers at seven Korean banks.

Hangang is not a stablecoin project. It tests deposit tokens, meaning commercial bank deposits issued in tokenized form. Genfinity points out that these are not a direct liability of the central bank. A won stablecoin, by contrast, would be a private token backed by reserves, under a law that does not exist yet.

The partnership does not put Chainlink inside Hangang. Genfinity, which covered the deal on 22 October, wrote that the announcement ties Chainlink to LG CNS’s Digital Asset Platform Solution, “not to Hangang itself”. The Bank of Korea has said nothing about the partnership, and no document links Chainlink to the next phase of the pilot.

Korea’s won stablecoin law is still stuck

The deal arrives before the rules it is meant to serve. South Korea has no clear legal basis yet for issuing and trading stablecoins tied to the won, The Block noted. That basis is supposed to come from the Digital Asset Basic Act, the second phase of the country’s crypto legislation.

The Financial Services Commission first aimed to send that bill to the National Assembly in the first quarter of 2026, the Korea JoongAng Daily reported on 15 September. It stalled on two points. One is a proposal that banks, or consortiums led by banks, hold at least 50% plus one share of any won stablecoin issuer. The other is a 20% cap on the stakes controlling shareholders may hold in crypto exchanges. An FSC official told the paper: “Our goal is to submit it within September.” Coindaro found no report that the bill was submitted.

The bank-majority rule is the Bank of Korea’s line. In November 2025 the central bank insisted that a bank consortium own at least 51% of any issuer, while financial regulators wanted room for tech companies, the same paper reported at the time.

The latest schedule comes from Bloomingbit, which reported on 21 October that the National Assembly’s Political Affairs Committee plans to start reviewing the act in a bill-review subcommittee in November, with the goal of passing it this year. Fintech firms still argue that non-bank companies need room to issue. Lawmakers are also due to discuss Korea’s crypto tax, which we covered in our report on a fourth delay of the 22% tax.

Banks test while they wait

Korean banks have run trials without waiting for the law. KB Financial Group tested won stablecoin payments, settlement and overseas remittances in May; a transfer to a Vietnamese bank account took about three minutes, against one to two days through Swift, and KB says fees fell by about 87%, according to JoongAng Daily. Woori Bank paid a Coupang Eats order with a won stablecoin and settled with the merchant in real time. Shinhan Bank is strengthening its anti-money-laundering systems, and KakaoBank is connecting a wallet tested by Kakao Pay to its banking systems. Ten Korean banks have opened talks on a Korea-Europe stablecoin remittance project.

None of these banks is named in the Chainlink release. Exchange operators are moving too: Upbit’s parent Dunamu runs its own GIWA chain and, as we reported, agreed with MoonPay to explore stablecoin payments, again with no deal signed.

Chainlink’s earlier steps in Korea

This is not Chainlink’s first Korean stablecoin alliance. In January 2026, Chainlink Labs joined the Global Alliance for KRW Stablecoins (GAKS), which game company Wemade launched in November 2025 around StableNet, a mainnet for won-backed stablecoins. According to Cointelegraph, Chainlink’s role there covers data integrity, infrastructure standards and access to its oracle services. The alliance does not issue a stablecoin itself.

On 6 October, Niki Ariyasinghe, Chainlink’s vice president for Asia-Pacific and the Middle East, told Herald Corp that no won stablecoin had yet appeared in Korea, unlike in Europe where MiCA gives issuers a framework. He expected institutional tokenization in Korea to gain pace in 2027 and 2028.

Chainlink now has ties to an alliance led by a game company and to the builder of the central bank’s pilot. If the bank-majority rule survives, those two camps will not have the same access to issuance.

Dates behind the Chainlink LG CNS announcement

No visible move in LINK

The token did not react in any visible way. LINK traded at $12.13 at 04:29 UTC on 23 October, down 0.71% over 24 hours and 2.04% over seven days, according to Coindaro’s market snapshot. Total crypto market capitalisation was 3.93% lower over the same 24 hours, and bitcoin stood near $81,600.

Where Europe comes in

The LG CNS deal itself has no European side. In the European Union, MiCA already sets who may issue a euro stablecoin; Korea is still writing that rule.

Chainlink’s euro link with Korea runs elsewhere. Ariyasinghe told Herald Corp that Chainlink leads Project Pangea, which brings 10 Korean banks and 37 European banks together to settle won and euro payments against each other in real time. Readers new to the subject will find the basics in our beginner’s guide to stablecoins.

What to watch next

The first thing to watch is whether LG CNS publishes its own account of the deal, with a product, a bank or a date. The second is the subcommittee review of the Digital Asset Basic Act in November. Whether the 50% plus one bank rule survives it will decide who can issue the won stablecoins this partnership says it wants to distribute.