According to a report by the Korea Economic Review, eight major South Korean banks are preparing to establish a joint venture to issue a Korean Won stablecoin. Participating institutions include Kookmin Bank, Shinhan Bank, Woori Bank, NongHyup Bank, Korea Development Bank, Suhyup Bank, Citibank Korea, and Standard Chartered Bank Korea. The project is being jointly promoted by the Korea Federation of Banks, the Korea Financial Telecommunications and Clearing Institute, and the bank-led Open Blockchain and Decentralized Identifier Association, and is currently under discussion regarding the underlying infrastructure. If regulatory approval is granted, the joint venture is expected to officially launch by the end of this year or early next year. The project team is currently considering two issuance models: one is a trust model, where customer funds are independently entrusted before the stablecoin is issued; the other is a deposit token model, which directly links the stablecoin to bank deposits. [ChainCatcher]