Wire · technology
South Korea eyes September launch for second phase of CBDC pilot: Report
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Fusion42 · 20 July 2026 · Fusion42 review
South Korea's central bank is expanding its wholesale CBDC pilot (Project Hangang) to a second phase launching September 2026, adding nine banks, peer-to-peer transfers, biometric authentication, and government subsidy disbursement tests via tokenized deposits.
This Wire brief sits within Fusion42's coverage of Fintech, and 3 sources have reported it.
◆ ◆ The Wire takeaway
If you build payment rails, settlement infrastructure or custody for banks, South Korea just opened a test bed that runs at scale - nine banks moving real money on a central bank asset means you now have a live customer who needs to integrate with you. The move from infrastructure testing to commercial features (P2P, biometric, government disbursement) means the feature set is real and the integration budget is allocated.
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3 sources · 20 Jul 2026
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