Coupang, the New York-listed retailer often called South Korea's Amazon, has completed a test of instant stablecoin payments to restaurants, five months after regulators fined the company over hundreds of thousands of delayed supplier payments.
The retailer and Woori Bank, one of South Korea's largest commercial banks, used a token designed to remain worth one Korean won to simulate transfers and merchant payouts, according to a report by Korean newspaper Chosun.
- During the test, payments placed through Coupang Eats, the company's restaurant-delivery app, were instantly transferred to participating merchants.
- Woori Bank then connected the digital wallets to bank accounts and tested conversions between the token and ordinary won.
- The test ran on Tempo, a payments-focused blockchain incubated by Stripe and Paradigm. Coupang disclosed in April that it had invested in Tempo, although it didn't reveal the amount.
The announcement doesn't say that actual customers or restaurants handled the tokens, though. Nor do the companies disclose expected savings, participating merchants, a launch date or who would issue and back the stablecoin.
Instant payments after years of delays
The payment-speed pitch arrives shortly after the Korea Fair Trade Commission fined Coupang 2.19 billion won in February.
The regulator found that the company had delayed 281 billion won, then worth roughly $197 million, across 508,752 transactions with 25,715 suppliers between October 2021 and June 2024. Some payments arrived as many as 233 days late, Reuters writes.
- Korean analytics company Wiseapp Retail estimates that payments through Coupang and Coupang Eats reached 77.57 trillion won (about $53 billion) during 2025, although the estimate excluded cash, transfers and gift certificates, according to Korea JoongAng Daily.