The Bank of Korea reported that a tokenized deposit pilot completed transactions in real time, with the full process from payment order to final settlement averaging one minute and 20 seconds.
Twenty-eight central banks and international financial organizations took part in the pilot. South Korean participants included KB Kookmin Bank, NH NongHyup Bank, Shinhan Bank, Woori Bank and Hana Bank.
Participants completed 30 transactions across 17 scenarios, including corporate and interbank transfers, settling in six currencies including the Korean won, US dollar and euro. Total transaction volume reached approximately 800,000 Swiss francs ($995,000).
The central bank said the platform operated stably throughout testing despite running in an environment only partially connected to existing banking infrastructure, with settlements conducted without failures, quickly and transparently.
The Bank of Korea also conducted a 20 million won ($13,890) transfer between NH NongHyup Bank and Shinhan Bank through Project Agora, a transaction that involved manually connecting Project Hangang, the platform for launching the central bank's wholesale digital currency, to the live network to test compatibility. The central bank said it plans to continue testing deposit token payments.
