"The aim of COOCON(294570) is to leap forward as a "core hub of the global financial infrastructure (infrastructure)." As we have over the past 20 years, we will remain the most reliable financial infrastructure partner for corporate clients going forward."
COOCON CEO Kim Jong-hyun said the company will establish itself as a corporations providing infrastructure for won-denominated stablecoins issued by banks in the next-generation digital finance market. Founded in 2006, COOCON is a Business-to-Business (B2B) business data platform corporations. It collects and connects data from more than 500 institutions in Korea across finance, public, healthcare, retail, and telecom, and from about 2,000 financial institutions in 40 countries overseas, and offers them as some 300 application programming interface (API) products.
COOCON serves more than 2,000 corporate clients through its domestic API store coocon.net. Major corporations such as Naver (NAVER(035420)), Kakao Pay(377300), and Toss use COOCON's APIs. It also operates payment services that provide firm banking, virtual accounts, account easy payment, and Automated Teller Machine (ATM) deposits and withdrawals by connecting with domestic banks, card companies, and securities firms via a real-time dedicated network.
This year, it is pushing a data business based on the Model Context Protocol (MCP). MCP refers to standardized rules for how artificial intelligence (AI) models connect to external data. COOCON is providing an MCP server so AI can call the entirety of the finance and public data that COOCON has connected in a standardized way. On the 8th, it unveiled an "AI MCP product hall" on coocon.net, first introducing more than 30 products, with a goal of over 100 within the year and converting all products by next year.
It is also expanding its global pay business. Based on 2 million domestic Quick Response (QR) merchants, 100,000 large franchise locations, and 40,000 ATMs nationwide, it is expanding partnerships with major Asian payment companies such as UnionPay, WeChat Pay, Alipay+, Indonesia's QRIS, and Singapore's Liquid Group. It is also pursuing the establishment of a Singapore subsidiary in the second half. It is pushing stablecoin distribution and settlement infrastructure as a new business. By linking virtual asset payment infrastructure with domestic easy payment companies, it is proactively preparing stablecoin top-up, payment, and ATM withdrawal services for both domestic and foreign users.
After graduating from Pusan National University's electronic computing department, CEO Kim worked at Dongnam Bank and Housing Bank before moving in 2000 to WebCash, COOCON's parent company, and has served as CEO since COOCON's founding in 2006. He is currently president of the Electronic Financial Business Council and, starting this year, also serves as head of the Korea Fintech Industry Association (KORFIN). The following is a Q&A with Kim.
—What prompted the push for the won stablecoin business?
"It was a choice to respond to massive changes in domestic and overseas markets. In just the first half of this year, inbound foreign tourists surpassed 10 million, and in May alone they spent more than 2 trillion won in Korea. Money changers in Myeong-dong and Dongdaemun already display the Tether (USDT) logo. Tourists and foreign workers already use stablecoins routinely for currency exchange and remittances.
The domestic market lacks infrastructure to safely absorb demand for exchange, payments, and withdrawals. A stable channel was needed to connect foreigners' virtual assets with Korea's financial environment. COOCON's API infrastructure and payment network, built over the past 20 years, are the optimal assets to connect this trend safely within the institutional framework. For COOCON, this business is a natural process of expanding the infrastructure business it has done best, in step with the times."
—Who are the stablecoin customers?
"Because it is a B2B infrastructure business, COOCON's direct customers are corporations. They include banks and issuers that issue won and dollar stablecoins; domestic and overseas easy payment companies and exchanges that want to provide payment and withdrawal services to inbound foreign tourists or overseas users; and e-commerce and platform corporations that need cross-border settlement.
The ultimate beneficiaries will be inbound foreign tourists and small business owners. By using stablecoins, foreigners can pay and withdraw in Korea with their home-country apps without the hassle of currency exchange, and small business owners gain the benefit of instant settlement. The inbound foreigner payment market is an area with annual payment volume of more than 10 trillion won and expected annual growth of over 30%. When stablecoins take root as one of the payment methods in this market, the value of COOCON's infrastructure will grow."
—What is COOCON's competitive edge in stablecoins?
"COOCON's most definitive differentiator is that it has a "complete infrastructure that has already been validated and can be activated immediately." For stablecoin payments to work smoothly, data processing capability and the actual payment network must interlock at the same time, and COOCON is virtually the only corporations that possesses both. Beyond the real-time dedicated network with financial institutions built over 20 years, a dense network of 2 million offline QR merchants nationwide and 40,000 ATMs is already in place.
There is also a structural advantage. When the stablecoin market opens, platform corporations such as Toss, Kakao Pay, and Upbit will compete fiercely. Yet all of them operate their services on COOCON's infrastructure, including won deposit and withdrawal APIs and authentication APIs. No matter which platform takes the lead, COOCON will handle the role of connecting data and payments behind the scenes. The more active the transactions become, the more COOCON's API traffic rises in tandem."
—What stage is the proof of concept (PoC) at now?
"We are finishing preparations in stages so we can commercialize immediately upon legislation. Last year, we promoted a technology validation of COOCON's global distribution network based on the Solana blockchain network. Recently, together with iM Bank (iM Financial Group(139130)) and Bitoz, we successfully completed a PoC for a stablecoin issuance and payment ecosystem. We verified every step—from payment request to blockchain-based processing to instant settlement—under conditions comparable to an actual payment environment.
Currently, by linking the domestic easy payment company Beple Wallet with overseas digital asset payment infrastructure, we are working toward completing by the end of this month the development of stablecoin payment and ATM withdrawal services that both domestic and foreign users can use. The technology verification is done, and service development is in the final stage. Our goal is to finish all preparations we can now so that, when domestic stablecoin legislation is completed, we can switch immediately to commercial service."
—What are COOCON's future goals?
"COOCON's ultimate aim is to leap forward as a core hub of the global financial infrastructure. As technology advances, payment methods continue to evolve. From plastic cards to QR codes, now to stablecoins, and in the not-too-distant future, an era will come when AI agents make payments directly. But no matter how the methods change, infrastructure that safely connects new payment methods to the existing financial network must always exist.
COOCON plans to complete the establishment of a Singapore subsidiary this year to secure an overseas base for cross-border payments and settlements. Following UnionPay and WeChat Pay, it is completing integrations with major Asian global pay companies such as those in Indonesia and Singapore. Starting as a domestic data platform, COOCON's next 20 years are about evolving into a "global payment hub" that spans multi-currency remittances, global B2B payments, and seller settlement agency services."
—You took on the role of head of the Korea Fintech Industry Association (KORFIN) this year.
"What I feel as association head is that for the domestic fintech industry to take the next step, the efforts of individual corporations alone are not enough. Tasks such as stablecoin institutionalization, AI finance regulatory innovation, and cross-border payment infrastructure require the entire industry to speak with one voice. As association head, I will create a policy environment where the fintech industry can grow together. I will actively support the birth of fintech unicorns with world-class competitiveness in Korea."