Bank of Korea Advances Digital Currency with Project Agora Trials

The pilot involved 27 central banks and private institutions, including major South Korean lenders such as KB Kookmin, Shinhan, and Hana Bank. Participants executed transactions totaling 800,000 Swiss francs across 17 distinct scenarios, ranging from dual-currency settlements to foreign exchange trades. A domestic trial saw 20 million won transferred between NongHyup and Shinhan Bank, demonstrating how tokenized reserves function on the Project Agora platform.

To bridge existing infrastructure with new digital frameworks, the central bank integrated its Project Hangang platform with current financial networks. This ensures that wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC) systems can interoperate with legacy payment architectures. While the Bank of Korea continues to distinguish its deposit tokens—issued through a wholesale CBDC framework—from privately issued stablecoins, Governor Shin Hyun-song has signaled a clear intent to prioritize these institutional digital assets to strengthen the Korean won's position in global digital finance. Further tests are already scheduled to broaden the scope of payment types and operational environments.