Elliptic to Advance AI Compliance Following $120M Series D

The infusion of capital brings Elliptic’s total valuation to $670 million. This milestone comes at a time when the lines between decentralized finance and legacy banking continue to blur. Elliptic now screens a larger portion of the global onchain economy than any other private sector provider in the industry.

The New York-based company intends to use the funds to accelerate its delivery of enterprise-grade analytics for banks, fintechs, and government agencies. With stablecoins processing a staggering $33 trillion in transactions during 2025, the demand for real-time risk management has reached a fever pitch.

On Tuesday, Elliptic detailed that it has spent over a decade building a proprietary dataset that spans more than 65 blockchains. This data foundation allows the firm to offer AI-native compliance tools that automate the triage of suspicious activities. By resolving alerts in minutes rather than hours, the platform reduces the overhead costs for global exchanges.

The participation of Nasdaq and Deutsche Bank suggests that institutional-grade infrastructure is no longer optional for the broader market. These entities oversee trillions in daily activity and require robust frameworks to manage the inherent risks of distributed ledger technology.

“As digital assets become more embedded in the global financial system, institutions need trusted infrastructure to manage compliance and risk at scale,” stated Gary Offner, Senior Vice President and Head of Nasdaq Ventures.

The British Business Bank’s involvement highlights the UK government’s interest in fostering technology scale-ups through the British Growth Partnership. This initiative aims to unlock long-term value for pension funds by supporting high-growth sectors like blockchain analytics.

Currently, two-thirds of global crypto volume moves through exchanges that utilize Elliptic’s compliance backbone, the company claims. The platform now supports over 700 customers across 30 different countries, screening more than 1 billion transactions every week, according to the firm’s stats.

As tokenized assets move from the periphery to the core of financial innovation, real-time monitoring is becoming an operational necessity. Elliptic’s platform is designed to catch risks before they crystallize, allowing human investigators to focus on high-priority cases.

“The sustainable growth of digital assets depends on strong, institutional-grade risk and compliance foundations,” noted Sabih Behzad, Global Head of Digital Assets & Currencies Transformation at Deutsche Bank.

The Series D also saw continued support from previous backers, including AlbionVC, Evolution Equity Partners, and JPMorgan. This suggests a consensus among early and late-stage investors regarding Elliptic’s dominance in the field.

CEO Simone Maini believes the financial system is being fundamentally rebuilt onchain. She noted that the company was built for this specific moment where scale and sophistication are paramount for the world’s largest financial players.

As the industry moves forward, the focus remains on scaling compliance without a linear increase in costs. With $120 million in fresh capital, Elliptic is positioned to remain at the center of the ongoing transition to a digital, onchain economy. Chainalysis is a primary competitor of Elliptic in the blockchain surveillance and digital asset compliance sector.

Payward Joins Franklin Templeton to Expand Real-World Asset Tokenization

The partnership pairs Franklin Templeton’s roughly $1.74 trillion in assets under management with Payward’s xStocks tokenized equities framework, which has processed more than $30 billion in trading volume since its 2025 launch.

At the center of the deal is a plan to build actively managed investment products directly on blockchain networks, allowing professionally managed strategies from a major traditional asset manager to become programmable and tradeable onchain.

The two companies will also co-design tokenized yield products aimed first at institutional clients and, where regulations permit, Kraken‘s broader user base. The products are designed to emphasize transparency, programmability, and flexibility.

Kraken will integrate Franklin Templeton’s BENJI token suite into its platform for institutional use. BENJI tokens represent shares in the Franklin Onchain U.S. Government Money Fund and related vehicles and can be used as collateral or to generate yield in digital markets.

Arjun Sethi, co-CEO of Payward and Kraken, remarked that the collaboration reflects a fundamental shift in how financial products are structured. “What collaborations like this one unlock is a new class of products that wouldn’t have been possible even three years ago: assets that carry the credibility of multi-decade managers and the programmability of digital infrastructure,” Sethi said.

Sandy Kaul, head of digital assets and innovation at Franklin Templeton, stated that the focus is on making onchain assets functional for the full range of market participants.

Kaul explained:

“By expanding the utility of BENJI and exploring new tokenized products, our work with Payward reflects the growing need to serve both digital-native and institutional customers with solutions built for how capital increasingly moves onchain.”

Franklin Templeton has pursued blockchain integration since 2018 and launched FOBXX, the first U.S.-registered mutual fund to record share ownership on a public blockchain, in April 2021. The fund now operates across Stellar, Solana, Base, Polygon, Aptos, Arbitrum, Avalanche, and other networks.

In March 2026, Franklin Templeton partnered with Ondo Finance to tokenize five of its ETFs for onchain distribution and around-the-clock trading via crypto wallets. The following month, the firm launched its Franklin Crypto unit through the acquisition of 250 Digital, a CoinFund spinoff, with part of that transaction settled using BENJI tokens.

Payward’s xStocks framework offers tokenized 1:1 representations of U.S. stocks and ETFs for eligible non-U.S. clients, enabling extended trading hours and DeFi composability, including lending and decentralized exchange trading. The company also announced a partnership with Nasdaq earlier in 2026 to develop specialty equity token designs supporting automated corporate actions, proxy voting, and dividend distribution.

The collaboration highlights a broader industry push toward real-world asset tokenization. Traditional assets gain blockchain-native benefits, including 24/7 availability and composability with decentralized finance protocols, while onchain infrastructure gains access to regulated, institutional-grade products.

Risks disclosed in the announcement include regulatory uncertainty, blockchain security vulnerabilities, pricing and settlement accuracy, and operational factors. Tokenized products are issued and distributed by Payward; Franklin Templeton manages underlying strategies but does not issue or endorse tokenization platforms. The notice disclosed that availability varies by jurisdiction.

Both firms participate in DTCC tokenization working groups, and the partnership positions them as leading integrators of traditional finance and crypto-native infrastructure as institutional demand for onchain products accelerates.

Sui network’s native token, SUI, has climbed 50% over the past seven days after a Nasdaq-listed company staked a large portion of the token’s supply and developers announced upcoming features, including zero-fee stablecoin transfers and private transactions. 

SUI traded around $0.94 on May 4 before climbing to $1.41 on Sunday, according to CoinGecko. Over the same timeframe, trading volume surged from more than $213 million to over $2.5 billion. 

Ryan McMillin, co-founder and chief investment officer of Australian crypto investment manager Merkle Tree Capital, told Cointelegraph the rally has likely been driven by multiple reinforcing catalysts.

He pointed to a “meaningful supply squeeze” as the “clearest near-term trigger” after Nasdaq-listed SUI Group Holdings revealed Friday that its entire SUI treasury of more than 108 million tokens, worth over $143 million, has been staked.

Sui launched its mainnet in May 2023, aiming to be scalable and process transactions fast enough for financial institutions. African payments infrastructure company Paga Group announced at Consensus 2026 in Miami on Thursday that it has partnered with Sui to develop blockchain‑powered cross‑border transfers and stablecoin products. 

Private fee-free stablecoin promise 

Adeniyi Abiodun, a co-founder of Mysten Labs, the developers behind the Sui network, also announced at Consensus 2026 that zero-fee stablecoin transfers would roll out soon and reiterated plans to add a private transaction feature.

Privacy-focused cryptocurrency Zcash (ZEC) spiked by more than 70% last week as crypto traders started paying closer attention to privacy-focused projects. Privacy had been a significant investment theme for crypto in 2025, with privacy-focused tokens surging despite a broader downturn in the rest of the market.

Source: Adeniyi Abiodun

“This positions Sui as low-friction rails for payments and liquidity and also attractive to agentic AI payments. The Nasdaq angle is also notable: it puts SUI in the same public company treasury/equity market access group as BTC, ETH, SOL and others, signaling growing institutional comfort,” McMillin added.

“Sui is shifting from promising L1 or high-beta play to actual adoption story. The combo of institutional staking, zero-fee ambition and regulated futures access is rare among alts. Watch on-chain metrics post-announcement for confirmation.”

At the same time, Abiodun said Friday the Sui network’s prediction market DeepBook Predict was going live on the testnet. A March report from Bitget Wallet and Polymarket found that prediction markets are among the most active on-chain applications, with $25.7 billion in trading volume that month.

Rally’s success depends on execution, rollout 

SUI has settled at around $1.31 as of Monday. McMillin said that in the short term, the token could extend its rally because supply shocks and product news generally sustain momentum.

“We are also in an environment where we are seeing green shoots all over the crypto ecosystem and it looks more and more likely the bear market hibernation is over,” he said.

“Medium-term: more uncertain but constructive. Success depends on execution, actual zero-fee rollout, Paga integration traction in Nigeria and stablecoin volume growth. Sui has real tech edges and usage momentum, but token unlocks and broader crypto cycles remain risks.”

Magazine: Guide to the top and emerging global crypto hubs — Mid-2026 

Three of DeFi’s relatively young applications, including Hyperliquid, EdgeX and Pump.fun, have distributed a combined $96.3 million to token holders over the past 30 days, as the sector’s focus shifts to actual earnings.

Hyperliquid led the pack, generating $50.95 million in revenue over the period, all of which went directly to token holders with zero spent on incentives, according to data from DefiLlama. Pump.fun came in second with $22.09 million returned to holders out of $38.81 million in total revenue. EdgeX followed with $23.26 million distributed to holders from $8.26 million in protocol revenue, suggesting that the platform is drawing on reserves or alternative income streams to reward holders.

On an annualized basis, Hyperliquid has generated $945.87 million in revenue over the past year, all returned to holders, while Pump.fun sits at $481.15 million and EdgeX at $236.42 million.

Among other major protocols, Chainlink returned $4.63 million to holders, Aerodrome $3.53 million and Uniswap $3.29 million across 44 chains. PancakeSwap generated $3.94 million in revenue but returned $2.48 million to holders while spending $905,260 on incentives.

Related: DeFi can freeze stolen funds, but not everyone agrees it should

Crypto community now focuses on revenue

The data comes as revenue is becoming the metric that matters most in crypto, with token holders pushing protocols to justify their valuations through actual earnings rather than transaction volumes or network growth figures.

“Nobody cares that your chain does 10x the TPS anymore,” wrote Robbie Klages, co-founder of The Rollup, referring to a blockchain’s measure of transactions per second. “The market is ‘show me the money right now.’ Treat it like a business not a network growth thesis,” he added.

Top DeFi protocols by Holders Revenue. Source: DefiLlama

Another X user wrote that the shift from narrative to earnings is “permanent now,” warning that protocols unable to show real revenue will be valued like pre-revenue startups in a rate hike environment, a reference to the kind of sharp devaluations that hit speculative assets when capital gets expensive.

Related: Aave-Linked DeFi United Details rsETH Recovery Plan

DeFi is becoming backend for onchain economy

Andre Cronje, founder of the popular DeFi protocol Yearn.Finance, said that DeFi in 2026 looks less like a speculative playground and more like functioning financial infrastructure. He noted that stablecoins have grown into a $320 billion market led by Tether and Circle, decentralized exchanges are processing over $160 billion in monthly spot volume and perpetual DEXs are handling $540 billion monthly.

Cronje added that lending protocols, including Aave, Morpho and Maple Finance, are sitting on $28 billion in active loans, while real-world assets are increasingly being used as onchain collateral. “DeFi is no longer just competing for APY. It is becoming the backend for the onchain economy,” he wrote on X.

Magazine: Guide to the top and emerging global crypto hubs — Mid-2026

Decentralized finance protocols are reevaluating their blockchain oracle providers’ security after the fallout from the $293 million Kelp DAO exploit last month. Several protocols have announced migrations to Chainlink infrastructure in recent days, citing security concerns around third-party oracle and bridge providers.

On Thursday, Bitcoin DeFi platform Solv Protocol announced it would migrate to Chainlink’s Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) and replace LayerZero bridges, citing an “extensive security review” concluding that CCIP provided the “strongest security assurances.” 

A day earlier, liquidity protocol Tydro also said it was moving to Chainlink after its previous oracle provider, Chaos Labs, suffered an incident that prompted Tydro to pause markets over concerns about inaccurate price feeds.

The migrations come after an April 18 exploit in which attackers drained 116,500 Kelp DAO restaked ETH (rsETH) tokens worth between $290 million and $293 million. Following the exploit, Kelp DAO also migrated its rsETH token to Chainlink, moving away from its previous LayerZero-powered bridge after attributing the incident to weaknesses in its cross-chain setup.

Source: Solv Protocol

LayerZero, however, said on April 20 that the exploit resulted from a single point of failure in Kelp DAO’s implementation, which relied on a single LayerZero DVN as the only verified path despite prior warnings against that configuration.

DeFi protocols review oracle security after Kelp exploit

The Kelp DAO exploit triggered a “wake-up call” for DeFi providers, according to Zach Rynes, strategic initiatives lead at Chainlink Labs.

Related: Aave liquidates Kelp DAO hacker’s rsETH positions on Ethereum, Arbitrum

Rynes told Cointelegraph that DeFi teams conducting security reviews are increasingly deciding to replace older oracle and bridge systems with Chainlink infrastructure to strengthen baseline security protections, and multiple other DeFi protocols are discussing potential migrations to Chainlink following the exploit.

Oracle providers with long operating histories and strong reliability are becoming increasingly important as hacks continue across the sector, Marcin Kazmierczak, co-founder of RedStone, the fourth-largest blockchain oracle provider, told Cointelegraph, adding that RedStone has also kept a “fully reliable track record.”

Redstone was also contacted by Tydro as an emergency measure after the Chaos Labs oracle attack and provided support to help restore oracle feeds for the protocol.

Source: Redstone

Oracle consolidation raises new questions for DeFi

Following the Kelp DAO exploit, only a smaller group of specialized providers may be able to meet the “demand and reliability requirements” created by growing institutional participation in DeFi, Kazmierczak said.

“A smaller set of trusted oracles is forming in the market,” he said, adding that as capital concentrates around providers with proven track records, the risk of oracle-related exploits could decline.

When asked about the risks of multiple DeFi protocols depending on fewer providers, Rynes said Chainlink’s infrastructure was designed to withstand extreme market conditions.

He pointed to periods including the 2020 Covid market crash, the 2022 FTX collapse and major volatility events in 2025, saying Chainlink continued operating throughout those disruptions.

Related: Arbitrum vote to release $71M in frozen Kelp exploit ETH set to pass

Nik Kunkel, founder of Chronicle, the second-largest oracle provider, said that an overreliance on a single infrastructure provider will always present additional risks.

“There are risks anytime a large portion of an ecosystem depends on a single piece of infrastructure,” Kunkel told Cointelegraph, adding that reducing those risks also requires data infrastructure to remain independently transparent and verifiable.

Top Oracle providers by market share. Source: DefiLlama.com

Chainlink remains the largest oracle provider with a 58% market share and more than $32 billion in value secured, according to DefiLlama. Chronicle ranks second with $7.6 billion in total value secured, while RedStone holds fourth place with $3.7 billion, representing a 6.7% market share.

Magazine: 53 DeFi projects infiltrated, 50M NEO tokens could be ‘given back’: Asia Express

Mantle tokenholders backed a proposal authorizing a credit facility of up to 30,000 Ether (ETH), worth about $68 million, for Aave DAO, advancing remediation tied to bad debt from the April rsETH exploit.

The proposal, MIP-34, passed in a seven-day Snapshot vote that ended Friday, according to DAO governance platform Snapshot. The measure authorizes the Mantle Foundation to negotiate and execute definitive agreements with Aave DAO for a loan from the Mantle Treasury, though the facility remains subject to Aave implementing its recovery plan and the parties finalizing terms.

The credit facility is intended to help address the impact of the rsETH incident on Aave V3. The proposal said the attacker deposited 89,567 unbacked rsETH on Aave and borrowed about $190 million in WETH, wstETH and stablecoins, creating potential bad debt estimated at between $123.7 million and $230.1 million.

The vote comes as the fallout from the rsETH exploit has moved beyond the initial liquidity shock into a broader remediation phase, with Mantle positioning its treasury as a backstop while Aave works to address bad debt and restore confidence in its lending markets. 

Source: Aave

Aave WETH market cools after post-exploit squeeze 

The Mantle credit facility would address the shortfall that also created liquidity stress across Aave’s lending markets.

Galaxy Research said in a Thursday report that the rsETH exploit pushed Aave’s Wrapped Ether (WETH) market into a prolonged squeeze, with WETH utilization staying above 99% for 12.7 days after the incident. 

“Across the full analysis horizon, WETH utilization stayed structurally elevated and close to the 100% ceiling, with an average around 99.6% and only easing to about 98.47% by the end of the snapshot period,” Galaxy said. 

Related: Aave asks Arbitrum to send 30K ETH from Kelp exploiter to ‘DeFi United’

High utilization means most of the supplied asset has already been borrowed, leaving little idle liquidity available for immediate withdrawals. In Aave’s case, Galaxy said the WETH market remained strained because supply contracted faster than borrows declined, keeping utilization near full capacity even after the initial shock. 

30-day WETH utilization rate chart. Source: Aavescan

The market has since cooled from the near-100% levels described in Galaxy’s analysis. Aavescan data showed Aave’s Ethereum V3 WETH market at about 91.6% utilization on Friday, with roughly 2.02 million WETH supplied and 1.85 million WETH borrowed. 

Magazine: North Korea denies crypto hacks, Upbit’s bank tests Ripple: Asia Express

BNY has partnered with Abu Dhabi-based Finstreet and ADI Foundation to develop institutional digital asset custody services for clients in the United Arab Emirates.

The initial focus is on Bitcoin and Ether custody for Finstreet’s existing clients, with plans to later extend to ADI Foundation’s blockchain infrastructure, the world’s largest custodian said in a Thursday announcement. The companies said they intend to expand the product scope to include stablecoins, tokenized real-world assets and other regulated digital instruments, though no timeline was given.

“BNY is uniquely positioned to connect traditional and digital financial ecosystems,” Hani Kablawi, executive vice chair at BNY, said. BNY claimed it is the first US global systemically important bank to offer digital asset custody.

The three firms will offer digital asset custody services from the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), an international financial center and free zone on Al Maryah Island. The initiative remains subject to definitive agreements and regulatory approvals, according to BNY.

Related: UAE free zone launches blockchain-based business IDs for registered firms

UAE stablecoin infrastructure expands

Finstreet is a subsidiary of Sirius International Holding, which is backed by UAE conglomerate IHC. IHC recently joined other institutions in launching DDSC, a dirham-backed stablecoin regulated by the UAE central bank. The stablecoin operates on ADI Chain, an institutional layer-2 blockchain developed by ADI Foundation.

PUSD, a Shariah-compliant stablecoin backed by reserves denominated in Saudi riyals and UAE dirhams, is also expected to launch on ADI Chain.

In 2025, ADI Chain signed memoranda of understanding with BlackRock, Mastercard and Franklin Templeton tied to tokenized asset settlement and digital financial infrastructure.

The UAE has continued developing its digital asset regulatory framework and tokenization infrastructure in recent years, licensing firms including Animoca Brands, BitGo and Binance while introducing rules covering tokenized stocks, ETFs and crypto derivatives.

Cointelegraph reached out to BNY for a comment, but had not received a response by publication.

Related: UAE investors buy AI dip, keep crypto exposure despite conflict

UAE stablecoins launch regulated conversion rail

The BNY collaboration comes as Abu Dhabi firms push deeper into regulated digital asset infrastructure.

In a Thursday announcement, AE Coin and USD Universal said they are building a regulated conversion rail that allows near-instant exchange between the UAE dirham-pegged AE Coin and the US dollar-backed USDU stablecoin, targeting institutional payments and treasury management.

The system runs on Al Maryah Community Bank’s infrastructure and will initially be accessible through Aquanow and Changer.ae, two regulated digital asset service providers in the UAE.

Magazine: Guide to the top and emerging global crypto hubs: Mid-2026

Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.

Samsung SDS, Samsung’s information technology services subsidiary, will reportedly build a token securities platform for the Korea Securities Depository (KSD), moving South Korea’s central securities depository closer to operating blockchain-based securities infrastructure as the country prepares a legal framework for tokenized assets. 

Samsung SDS won a contract to build and operate the platform for KSD, according to local reports from Yonhap News Agency and The Korea Times. The project is expected to be completed by February 2027 and will convert a technology verification testbed into a formal system capable of stable service operations. 

KSD plans to link its existing electronic securities account system with blockchain-based distributed ledger data to strengthen tokenized securities issuance and rights management, according to the reports. 

Samsung SDS previously worked on KSD’s tokenized securities efforts, including function-analysis consulting in 2024 and testbed platform construction in 2025, Seoul Economic Daily reported. 

The news comes as South Korea is preparing the market infrastructure needed to support tokenized securities once its incoming legal framework takes effect.

South Korea prepares its tokenized securities framework

On Jan. 15, the Financial Services Commission (FSC) said amendments to the Electronic Registration Act and the Financial Investment Services and Capital Markets Act had passed the National Assembly, paving the way for the issuance and circulation of security tokens.

The FSC said the amended Electronic Registration Act legally recognizes blockchain-based distributed ledgers as securities registries. The regulator also said token security issuers will be required to follow legally mandated procedures and apply for electronic registration with KSD, placing the depository at the center of South Korea’s future token securities infrastructure. 

Related: South Korea crypto sector warns AML proposal goes too far: Report

On March 4, the FSC launched a public-private consultative body on security tokens. The consultative body will work on rules and infrastructure for security tokens across four areas: technology and infrastructure, issuance, circulation and payment and settlement. 

In the announcement, the FSC also said that the framework is scheduled to take effect on Feb. 4, 2027, after updates to subordinate rules and the setup of relevant infrastructure. That timing closely matches Samsung SDS’s reported February 2027 target for completing the KSD platform.

Magazine: North Korea denies crypto hacks, Upbit’s bank tests Ripple: Asia Express

Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.

Space and Time (SXT), a level-1 data blockchain that secures onchain finance projects, has launched a virtual vault platform that it says is purpose-built for institutional lending.

The Microsoft-backed blockchain said on Tuesday that its new virtual vaults can be configured by institutional lenders and borrowers to their specific agreement, with cryptographically verified, continuously updated visibility into borrower collateral across the centralized exchanges and decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols where it actually sits.

Real-time verification of collateral has long vexed the institutional lending sector, with generic solvency metrics falling short of practical needs.

“We built Space and Time so both institutions and onchain protocols could verify the data they act on, and Virtual Vaults are the clearest expression of that yet. Institutional lenders need to see exactly what collateral backs a loan, exactly when they need to see it,” said Nate Holiday, co-founder of Space and Time and CEO of MakeInfinite Labs, in a statement shared with Cointelegraph.

Screenshot of SXT Chain Explained. Source: YouTube

Each vault is configured to the specific terms of its lending agreement, that is, which venues to monitor, which assets qualify as eligible collateral and what thresholds trigger alerts, according to the statement.

Related: Fireblocks launches tool for institutions to earn yield on stablecoins

Virtual vaults extend the platform into onchain credit, bringing verifiable controls and reporting to the systems institutional lenders and borrowers actually need to operate at scale, the company said.

Microsoft made VC investment, then integrated SXT with Fabric intelligent data platform

M12, Microsoft’s venture capital arm, participated in Space and Time’s Series A funding round and led a 2022 strategic funding round, according to Token Terminal data.

SXT’s most recent round, in August 2024, raised $20 million from investors including Lightspeed Faction and Arrington Capital, brought the total to $50 million. A company spokesperson declined to comment on current financing plans.

Space and Time was integrated with Microsoft Fabric a year ago and was recently designated a Microsoft co-selling cloud solution. The software giant touts Fabric as an end-to-end “intelligent data platform” that its deployed across its cloud offerings. 

Since then, the Space and Time Foundation has partnered with Southeast Asia’s Indomobil to onboard 50,000 students to the ecosystem. That program uses Space and Time to store proof of course completion and students pay for courses in SXT.

Space and Time (SXT) market cap over last 12 months. Source: Token Terminal

The blockchain’s native token, SXT, is deployed on multiple chains, including Ethereum and Base. At time of publication, CoinMarketCap data showed there were 368,350 token holders. SXT had a market cap of $21.92 million.

Magazine: Crypto wanted to overthrow banks, now it’s becoming them in stablecoin fight

Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.

South Korea’s Hana Financial Group, POSCO International and Dunamu, the operator of the crypto exchange Upbit, have signed a trilateral memorandum of understanding (MoU) to launch their blockchain-based remittance system, with POSCO International serving as the first real-world test case.

The agreement, signed Tuesday at Hana Financial Group’s Seoul headquarters, follows a successful proof-of-concept (PoC) completed earlier this year by Hana and Dunamu, which showed that blockchain could reduce settlement times and costs compared to the traditional SWIFT framework. That pilot used Dunamu’s proprietary GIWA Chain to replace SWIFT’s messaging network for cross-border transfers.

The new MoU allows the system to be tested on real trade transactions for the first time, with POSCO International handling the actual fund flows, the company said in a Wednesday announcement.

Traditional cross-border payments use SWIFT, where sending the payment instruction and actually moving the money are two separate steps, which slows things down and adds costs. The blockchain system combines both into a single real-time process, making transfers faster and cheaper.

Related: South Korea to pilot tokenized deposits for government spending

Dunamu’s GIWA Chain to power blockchain remittance system

Under the deal, POSCO International’s trading arm will handle business application using real transaction flows, Hana Financial will manage remittance processing, fund settlement and foreign exchange, while Dunamu provides the blockchain infrastructure through GIWA Chain and maintains the transaction record.

“We have established a foundation for mid-to-long-term partnerships with leading domestic companies in the fields of digital finance and digital assets,” Lee Gye-in, president of POSCO International, said.

From left to right: Hana Financial Group vice chairman Lee Eun-hyung, POSCO International president Lee Gye-in, and Dunamu CEO Oh Kyung-seok. Source: POSCO

The three companies plan to establish a working model for real-time blockchain remittances before the end of the year.

Related: Naver-Dunamu filing sets IPO committee, listing timeline for fintech group

POSCO International deepens crypto push

The deal adds to POSCO International’s broader push into digital finance. The company recently issued blockchain-based foreign currency digital bonds worth approximately 140 billion won (about $95 million) with HSBC, and last year introduced a blockchain-based global payment system with JP Morgan.

As Cointelegraph reported, South Korean internet-only bank Kbank has also partnered with Ripple to test blockchain-based cross-border remittances.

Magazine: South Korea gets rich from crypto… North Korea gets weapons

Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.