Tether files trademarks in South Korea as stablecoin giants vie for market access

Tether has applied for seven trademarks in South Korea, including for its company name and logo, in a move that market observers see as a hint of the firm expanding into the South Korean market. 

The issuer of the largest stablecoin in the world, USDT, is also expanding its reach into Africa and Asia by partnering with Lemfi. Meanwhile, Tether’s rival Circle (NYSE: CRCL) has already been meeting with major financial institutions in South Korea, setting up a potential showdown between number one and two in the stablecoin issuance business.

Tether and Circle are lining up entry into the South Korean market 

Tether, the company behind the world’s largest stablecoin USDT, is making progress in its plans to enter the South Korean market. The Korea Intellectual Property Rights Information Service (KIPRIS) recently received multiple trademark applications from Tether, totaling up to seven.

Tether’s previous filings in the country focused on stablecoin product names, but this batch includes the corporate brand itself and its gold-backed stablecoin Tether Gold (XAUT).

South Korea’s proposed Digital Asset Basic Act is expected to require foreign stablecoin issuers to maintain a domestic branch if they want to distribute their tokens locally, and Tether appears to be positioning itself ahead.

Before Tether’s latest filings, Circle’s CEO Jeremy Allaire visited Seoul in April and met with executives from KB Financial Group, Shinhan Financial Group, and Hana Financial Group to discuss stablecoin payment cooperation and real-world asset tokenization. 

Allaire acknowledged the potential in the South Korean market and shared Circle’s plans to establish a Korean subsidiary and obtain a license if the final regulatory framework accepts foreign issuers.

Circle has also signed partnerships with Korean exchanges Dunamu, which operates Upbit, and Bithumb to expand USDC adoption on domestic trading platforms.

Cryptopolitan reported earlier that Hana Card, part of Hana Financial Group, launched a pilot in March allowing foreign visitors to pay at local merchants using USDC through a partnership with Circle and Crypto.com. Other Korean financial firms, including BC Card and KB Kookmin Card, have been testing stablecoin payment infrastructure as well.

Tether has been on an expansion trail 

Tether also recently announced an investment in LemFi, a cross-border payments platform that works across communities in the UK, US, Canada, and Europe to recipients in Africa and Asia. The deal will integrate USDT as a settlement layer across LemFi’s payment corridors, replacing multi-day SWIFT-based transfers with blockchain settlement.

Tether’s CEO Paolo Ardoino said in the announcement that the goal of the partnership is to expand financial access for its estimated 585 million users globally.

Cryptopolitan previously reported that Tether recorded $1.04 billion in profit for Q1 2026. The company holds excess reserves of $8.23 billion; enough capital to invest in distribution partners and pursue market entry in jurisdictions like South Korea.

South Korea is home to an estimated 18 million crypto investors. Exchanges in the country recorded over $663 billion in trades through mid-2025, and the country’s retail traders remain a significant part of altcoin markets.

Beyond Tether and Circle, multiple projects are building won-denominated stablecoins. Cryptopolitan reported that the Bank of Korea has been advancing “Project Han River,” its wholesale CBDC initiative, which entered a second phase of real-transaction testing earlier this year.

Regulators are still debating whether or not stablecoin issuance should be restricted to commercial banks or follow a more flexible licensing model. The discussion has been postponed until after South Korea’s June local elections.