South Korea's Toss Bank has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Solana Foundation to test blockchain-based remittance and settlement infrastructure. The deal, signed in Seoul on June 19, is the first direct strategic cooperation agreement between a Korean internet bank and the Solana Foundation.
What the pilot covers
The pilot will explore cross-border remittances using Solana's blockchain. If it moves beyond testing, the infrastructure could serve Toss Bank's 15 million customers. That's a large user base for a technology that's still relatively unproven in mainstream banking. Toss Bank is the country's third-largest internet-only lender, competing with KakaoBank and K-Bank in a crowded digital banking market.
Why Solana
Solana's blockchain can process thousands of transactions per second at low cost — attributes that make it attractive for financial infrastructure. For the Solana Foundation, the partnership offers a foothold in South Korea's competitive digital banking sector. The foundation has been pushing for real-world use cases beyond trading and DeFi, and this deal gives it a direct link to a retail bank's customer base.
Cross-border remittances remain slow and expensive through traditional correspondent banking. Blockchain-based solutions promise near-instant settlement at a fraction of the cost. South Korea is a major remittance corridor, with millions of workers and students sending money abroad each year. A successful pilot here could pressure other Korean banks to explore similar blockchain infrastructure.
Neither Toss Bank nor the Solana Foundation has set a timeline for the pilot or a potential full rollout. Technical specifications are expected to be finalized in the coming weeks. The next regulatory hurdle — if the pilot proves out — would involve getting approval from South Korean financial authorities for live cross-border transfers on a public blockchain. No application has been filed yet.
