Bank of Korea CBDC Pilot Advances Domestic Phase 2 Without Confirmed Bank of Thailand Bilateral Link

The Bank of Korea has not confirmed any direct expansion of its wholesale CBDC pilot for cross-border settlements with the Bank of Thailand as of November 14, 2026. Official sources from both central banks show ongoing domestic work and participation in broader BIS initiatives rather than a new bilateral arrangement.

Project Hangang Phase 2 scales domestic testing

Phase 2 of Project Hangang, launched around September 2026, added Kyongnam Bank and iM Bank to the original seven participants. The expanded group now includes KB Kookmin, Shinhan, Hana, Woori, NH Nonghyup, IBK and Busan. Up to 500,000 users can conduct P2P transfers, receive programmable government subsidies and test higher transaction limits through commercial-bank deposit tokens backed by Bank of Korea wholesale CBDC.

Phase 1 results from April to June 2025 recorded 114,880 transactions across roughly 81,000 wallets opened by about 100,000 participants. Current work focuses on core-system integration at the nine banks and wider merchant acceptance. The Bank of Korea plans a 2027 pilot linking wholesale CBDC to tokenized government bonds.

Separately, the central bank is running a won-denominated international payment network trial with four commercial banks. Full rollout of that network is scheduled for January 2027. These efforts aim to reduce intermediaries in tokenized asset settlement without requiring a direct Bank of Thailand bilateral link.

Regional and multilateral context for cross-border work

The Bank of Korea participates in BIS Project Agorá, which targets a 2028 launch for cross-border payments using tokenized central-bank and commercial-bank money. Eight central banks are involved. The Bank of Korea also holds observer status in mBridge and contributes to the Nexus project that connects instant-payment systems, including Thailand’s, with a Q4 2027 target.

The Bank of Thailand continues its own wholesale CBDC research through Inthanon phases and mBridge involvement. No recent official statements from either institution document a new bilateral CBDC settlement pilot between the two banks. Any future cross-border functionality would likely route through these existing multilateral platforms rather than a standalone Korea-Thailand corridor.

Market participants monitoring tokenized-asset settlement should track Bank of Korea progress on Project Hangang commercialization and the January 2027 international payment network launch. These domestic and multilateral steps currently define the scope of Bank of Korea wholesale CBDC activity.