Simon

Jeremy, great to see you again.

Jeremy

Great to see you too.

Simon

We met two years ago at Abu Dhabi Finance Week. At the time, Abu Dhabi was quite ahead on crypto regulation, and there were really good discussions around stablecoins and crypto in general. Korea is now at a similar moment. Things are moving very fast, so I'm really glad to have you in Seoul and excited to see Circle expanding its presence here. Before we dive in, I just want to say thank you for the incredible work you've done in establishing stablecoin guidelines for the industry.

Jeremy

Thank you.

Simon

First question. Korea is still in the process of finalizing its Digital Asset Framework Act, and key issues like stablecoin issuance and reserve requirements haven't been settled yet. At this stage, before regulation is finalized, how is Circle approaching the Korean market?

Jeremy

USDC is already growing in Korea as a trading and investment asset, and we want to expand that further. Today we announced expanded partnerships with Korea's two largest exchanges, which shows there are opportunities even at this stage. We also had lunch with major banks and payment companies, and they showed real interest in how they can participate in the emerging stablecoin opportunity and connect to global money movement and cross-border payment capabilities like CPN -- the Circle Payment Network. As Korea's regulations take shape, we're spending time with regulators, sharing the experience and knowledge we've built in the U.S., Europe, Hong Kong, Japan, and elsewhere. What's important is that each country's stablecoin policy needs to define what works for its own market and its own currency, while also deciding how it will interact with global stablecoins and stablecoins denominated in other currencies. Our focus, as the world's largest regulated digital dollar operator, is to meet the highest standards under whatever rules Korea creates, and to make sure that won-dollar transactions, cross-border transactions, and investment transactions can happen in the right way.

Simon

For stablecoins to transition into payment and treasury infrastructure, what needs to happen first in Korea?

Jeremy

There are near-term opportunities even before a stablecoin law is in place. We're already seeing cross-border transaction use cases -- whether you're a seller or buyer of goods, you can settle global treasury transactions or payments in minutes, with lower latency and lower capital costs. You can combine the existing Korean won banking system with stablecoin networks to improve this immediately. But the most important thing is for a Korean won stablecoin to be defined as part of the Korean financial system -- recognized as a new form of electronic money that businesses, households, and financial institutions can lawfully use. Once that happens, the expansion into payment and treasury infrastructure will be rapid. In the U.S., with the passage of the GENIUS Act, nearly every fintech and legacy payment company is integrating USDC into their operations. The passage of the law is decisive, and I think the longer Korea waits, the further behind it will fall.

Simon

Let's talk about AI and the agent economy. Korea is one of the most tech-forward countries in the world. For example, last spring Korea briefly surpassed the U.S. in OpenAI's paying user count, taking the number-one spot globally. That's actually why OpenAI executives suddenly visited Korea at that point. Right now many Koreans are actively using ChatGPT and similar AI agents, and tools like Open Claw and Hermes Agent are gaining popularity. What are your expectations for the convergence of Circle's stablecoin infrastructure and the AI agent economy?

Jeremy

This is a very big area of focus for us. Ten days after the Open Claw launch, we held a USDC hackathon exclusively for AI agents -- only AI agents could participate and vote. The results were remarkable. The things AI built, the way AI voted -- autonomous AIs interacting with each other using USDC and creating things. We're now building tools so that every AI agent can immediately learn our infrastructure, and we're building permissionless protocols on the public internet that AI agents can interact with directly. Circle Gateway is one example -- it allows AI to set up a unified USDC balance and execute cross-chain payments in under one second, with transaction costs at a millionth of a penny. We're also a co-author and founding member of the X402 Foundation, driving a protocol for AI to pay directly for APIs, services, and data on the internet, and it's now being adopted by thousands of services. Essentially, it's AI talking to other AI and paying in the process, and 99% of payments on this protocol are in USDC. The Arc operating system treats AI itself -- not just enterprises, startups, or developers -- as the core customer.

Simon

That's going to be a very significant development. One of my theses is that while there are many B2C and B2B industries, in the next few years Business to Agent -- B2A -- will become even bigger.

Jeremy

Absolutely. And Agent to Agent as well.

Simon

Right, exactly. Beyond KYC and KYB, KYA -- Know Your Agent -- is going to become critical.

Jeremy

Yes, that's going to be very important.

Simon

Not just in Korea but in many countries, people still think of stablecoins as something for trading digital assets, not for real-world use cases. What are your thoughts on that, and what is Circle's strategy for expanding beyond centralized and decentralized exchanges into actual consumer and enterprise use cases?

Jeremy

The shift is already happening. Across many regions, USDC adoption is growing significantly as a dollar banking alternative -- a safe store of value -- and there are hundreds of startups linking existing cards to stablecoins. Cross-border payments are the fastest-growing use case, and we're building products that make it easy for financial institutions serving businesses and consumers to integrate the benefits of stablecoins while hiding the complexity -- whether it's remittances or business-to-business payments. We have partnerships with the world's best companies. Both Stripe and Shopify offer USDC payments natively. If you're a Stripe merchant, you flip one setting and you can accept USDC alongside credit cards. Shopify pays merchants an extra 0.5% on USDC transactions to incentivize adoption. Global payroll companies like Deal and Gusto are offering USDC payout options. The biggest turning point is when laws like the GENIUS Act make stablecoins a legitimate digital dollar within the economy -- then households, businesses, and financial companies all treat it differently and become more comfortable using it. Passing legislation that brings stablecoins into the official financial system is the key to expanding adoption worldwide.

Simon

Korea is currently building regulations around the Korean won stablecoin. What are your views on that, and do you have plans to collaborate with won stablecoin issuers?

Jeremy

I see tremendous opportunity to collaborate with won stablecoins. We're looking forward to seeing strong won stablecoins emerge. Our vision is an internet financial system built on this infrastructure layer where value moves seamlessly around the world. We're building stablecoin issuance, payments, and foreign exchange infrastructure, and all of that will be a huge benefit for won stablecoin issuers. We expect several strong projects to come out of Korea, and we want to work together so that what we've achieved with USDC can also be achieved with the won.

Simon

We have a question from the audience -- will you be coming back to Korea?

Jeremy

I will absolutely be back.

Simon

That's great to hear. Thank you.