Key Takeaways
- Kbank, Kyobo Securities, Woori Bank and Jeonbuk Bank joined Ripple on one XRP Seoul panel on Oct. 3.
- XRP Seoul has drawn 5,000+ attendees in 2026, up from 3,000+ a year earlier, as XRP traded near $1.49.
- Ripple’s next Korean milestone is Kbank’s UAE and Thailand remittance pilot, which began in April this year.
One Panel, Many Chairs
The session was titled “From Cross-Border Payments to Tokenized Deposits,” and the lineup on the slide said more than the title did. A floor-level photo shared by XRP Ledger Foundation director Hussein Zangana, better known as Vet, showed representatives from Kbank, Kyobo Securities, Woori Bank and Jeonbuk Bank on stage.
The event ran at the Grand Hyatt Seoul during Korea Blockchain Week, with Ripple President Monica Long and RippleX senior vice president Markus Infanger on the speaker list. The organizers said the event grew from 3,000-plus attendees last year to more than 5,000 this year, and Bitcoin.com News flagged late last month that the agenda for the proceedings was set to be tokenization-heavy.
The Bank Behind Upbit
Kbank is the internet-only lender that serves as the sole banking partner for Upbit, which is why the bank grew from roughly 2 million users in 2020 to 15 million by the end of 2025. Kbank signed with Ripple in April of this year and the two have already verified a wallet app-based remittance system and moved to a second phase that tests onchain transfers to countries such as the UAE and Thailand, using Ripple’s Palisade wallet software.
Kyobo Enters the Fray by Way of Its Parent Entity
Kyobo Securities sits inside the same group as Kyobo Life Insurance, which partnered with Ripple in April to tokenize government bond settlement through Ripple Custody. The pilot targets near real-time settlement in place of the usual two-day cycle. A brokerage on the panel suggests the bond experiment is being discussed beyond the insurer’s own balance sheet.
The timing lines up with Seoul’s own plans, as Bitcoin.com News reported this week that South Korea is opening its market to tokenized stocks and bonds in 2027.
A Big Four Lender and a Regional First
Woori Bank is the panel’s wild card as it has no announced Ripple deal, and four days before XRP Seoul it was one of three Korean lenders that signed up with Moonpay, focusing on won-pegged stablecoins and cross-border corporate payments. Its seat next to Ripple suggests Korean banks are talking to several crypto vendors at once.
Jeonbuk Bank seems to have already picked a side and in August it became the first regional bank in Korea to deploy Ripple Payments, Ripple’s third Korean partnership of 2026. “Jeonbuk Bank is extending near real-time cross-border settlement directly to the businesses it serves,” Fiona Murray, Ripple’s managing director for Asia-Pacific, said at the time.
