South Korean payments company KSNET is bringing blockchain payments a step closer to everyday retail after partnering with the Solana Foundation to pilot crypto payment technology across its merchant network.
The two companies signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on Thursday in Seoul, with plans to test Solana Pay and x402, a protocol designed to enable AI agents to make small, automated payments without human intervention.
The partnership could significantly expand Solana’s presence in South Korea by giving the blockchain network access to one of the country’s largest payment processors.
Why is the agreement important?
Unlike many crypto partnerships involving newer fintech firms, KSNET already has a well-established footprint in traditional payments. Founded in 1999, the company has spent more than two decades building payment infrastructure and is now one of South Korea’s largest value-added network (VAN) providers.
Today, KSNET serves more than 330,000 merchants and processes around 130 million transactions every month, representing nearly $4 billion in monthly payment volume.
That scale makes the agreement particularly important for Solana.
Instead of building a merchant network from the ground up, the blockchain can plug into an existing payments platform that already handles millions of transactions for businesses across the country.
Terms and conditions of the MOU
The agreement focuses on two technologies. The first is Solana Pay, which allows merchants to accept payments settled directly on the Solana blockchain using stablecoins and other digital assets. If the pilot expands, merchants could eventually offer blockchain payments alongside traditional card transactions through KSNET’s existing payment systems.
The companies will also test x402, a newer protocol designed for AI-powered commerce. The technology allows AI agents to automatically pay for digital services, APIs and online resources without requiring a person to complete a checkout process.
Although still in its early stages, machine-to-machine payments are attracting growing interest as AI tools become more capable of carrying out tasks independently.
For KSNET, the goal is not to replace existing payment methods but to prepare its infrastructure for the next generation of digital payments.
By integrating blockchain technology into its current payment network, the company hopes to give merchants access to new payment options without requiring major changes to how they already operate.
The partnership also plays to Solana’s strengths as a payments network. Transactions on the blockchain typically settle in around 400 milliseconds and cost roughly $0.00025 each, making it well suited for high-volume retail payments and low-value transactions that would be impractical on many other blockchains.
The agreement reflects a broader shift in the payments industry, where established financial infrastructure providers are increasingly exploring blockchain technology rather than treating it as a competing system.
If the pilot proves successful, the partnership could open the door for crypto payments to reach hundreds of thousands of merchants in South Korea, giving Solana one of its most significant real-world payment integrations to date and further narrowing the gap between traditional finance and blockchain-based payments.
