On July 26, 2026, KB Kookmin Bank, South Korea’s largest lender, announced the launch of a corporate cross-border payment service using JPMorgan’s Kinexys blockchain platform.
The new solution will enable import and export businesses to send US dollar remittances to 10 countries, including the US, Singapore, India, and South Africa.
This makes KB Kookmin the first Korean bank to deploy JPMorgan’s permissioned blockchain for commercial payments, avoiding the use of volatile public cryptocurrencies.
Payments run through JPMorgan’s private Blockchain Deposit Accounts, offering blockchain’s programmability and near real-time foreign exchange settlement without disrupting existing payment systems like SWIFT.
The platform supports USD transfers to South Korea, the US, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, India, Thailand, Qatar, the UAE, Bahrain, and South Africa, letting banks maintain their current infrastructure while benefiting from blockchain technology.
Kinexys, rebranded from JPMorgan’s Onyx platform in late 2024, has handled over $4 trillion in transactions with daily volumes exceeding $7 billion.
As a permissioned blockchain, Kinexys restricts access to approved participants, providing fast settlements without the regulatory challenges of public blockchains.
KB Kookmin and JPMorgan signed a memorandum of understanding earlier to innovate with blockchain-based remittances. The August 2026 service launch is the first product from this collaboration.
also KB Kookmin is involved in South Korea’s wider blockchain efforts, including a recent government initiative on deposit token payments and pilots in digital bond issuance and stablecoins as of June 2026.
