Toss Stablecoin Mainnet Borderless Finance Strategy

📌 Background

In 2026, the South Korean fintech industry officially moved past the phase of pure scale expansion, shifting toward a focus on profitability. Viva Republica, the operator of Toss, saw its H1 revenue grow by 53% year-on-year. The company was also designated by South Korean financial authorities as the first financial conglomerate, subjecting it to group-level financial regulation. At the intersection of a maturing regulatory framework and advanced Web3 technology, Toss unveiled its stablecoin strategy in March 2026. The plan aims to build a borderless financial super-app using a proprietary mainnet and currency redesign, marking 2026 as a pivotal year for Toss to evolve from a domestic super-app into a global financial infrastructure provider.

👤 Target Customers

Existing users of the Toss super-app across payments, banking, securities, and insurance, as well as South Korean enterprises and SMEs with cross-border settlement needs; long-term goals include providing stablecoin and Web3 financial services to unbanked users globally.

💰 Revenue Streams

Interest spreads, transaction fees, and commissions from licensed businesses such as banking, securities, and insurance (with Toss Securities and Toss Bank reporting H1 net profits of 236.8 billion KRW and 58.9 billion KRW, respectively); long-term revenue streams include cross-border stablecoin settlement fees, proprietary mainnet service fees, tokenized asset custody fees, and cross-selling commissions from loans, insurance, and shopping within the Toss ecosystem.

🧮 Cost Structure

R&D and construction costs for the proprietary mainnet; expenses for obtaining multi-country stablecoin regulatory licenses; compliance costs associated with financial conglomerate-level oversight; customer acquisition subsidies and investments in ecosystem expansion.

🛡️ Moat

Scale advantage as a South Korean super-app, with Toss Bank surpassing 16 million customers as of August 2026; regulatory and infrastructure barriers established by its three licensed subsidiaries (banking, securities, and insurance); first-mover advantage in Web3 through a self-built mainnet and 24 registered stablecoin trademarks.

🔑 Keys to Success

• Implementing stablecoins into real-world cross-border payment scenarios to create a compliant closed loop
• Integrating super-app payment, banking, and securities scenarios with the proprietary mainnet
• Securing stablecoin regulatory licenses in South Korea and key target markets as quickly as possible

⚠️ Risks

• Strategic implementation hindered by changes in stablecoin regulatory policies
• Risk of sunk costs if the self-developed mainnet is superseded by mainstream public chain ecosystems
• Risk of being caught by domestic giants during the strategic window, leading to competitive attrition

🏢 Cases

• In March 2026, Toss unveiled its stablecoin strategy, announcing the development of a proprietary mainnet and the filing of 24 stablecoin-related trademarks.
• Toss Bank achieved a record-high net profit of 58.9 billion KRW in H1 2026, representing a 45.8% year-on-year increase.

📊 SWOT Analysis