330,000 Korean stores on Solana's doorstep as payments giant KSNET runs a blockchain settlement pilot

KSNET, South Korea's largest payment processor, handling $4 billion a month, signed a memorandum of understanding with the Solana Foundation at the company's headquarters in Seoul. KSNET will pilot integrating Solana Pay into its network of more than 330,000 merchants across both online and offline channels, where it has operated for more than 26 years, CryptoTimes reports.

The MOU outlines two separate pilot phases. First, Solana Pay gets integrated into KSNET's payment infrastructure, syncing blockchain settlement with the existing Korean won settlement network while complying with domestic anti-money laundering requirements. Once that phase wraps up, the company will move to testing x402 — a protocol that embeds payments directly into standard internet requests via the HTTP 402 status code, letting software AI agents make small automatic payments without human involvement and bypassing traditional card infrastructure.

“Based on the payment and settlement know-how accumulated in the market, we will try to provide the safest payment infrastructure to users”

— Park Han-han, CEO, KSNET

• KSNET has served Korean merchants for more than 26 years across online and offline channels
• Both phases are proof-of-concept testing, not a commercial launch
• x402 addresses the economic impracticality of micropayments — acquiring and interchange fees make traditional sub-won transactions unviable

Coinbase previously launched a similar x402-based AI payment protocol — giving businesses a way to accept payments from AI agents. KSNET's pilot shows interest in this infrastructure isn't limited to crypto-native companies — it's reaching traditional payment giants with decades of history in conventional markets too.

Nothing here should be taken as financial advice — just information to consider.