Woori Bank and K Bank have also expressed interest in the ledger. To coordinate these initiatives, the $XRP Asia hub was announced at the event, with Sabrina Tachdjian at its head.
At the same time, liquidity has flowed into the Agentic Economy sector, which focuses on AI agent micropayments. Infrastructure startup t54.ai, funded by Franklin Templeton, said the number of autonomous robot transactions over XRPL using the x402 protocol had exceeded 12 million.
At a panel in Seoul, t54 representatives confirmed that this AI infrastructure is being prepared for automation, with both $XRP and the upcoming RLUSD stablecoin set to be used as settlement units.
Despite the headlines, tracker data indicate that the token’s lead in the local market is driven by domestic regulatory factors, not by a global shortage of the asset itself:
- Leverage ban: South Korea’s legislative ban on margin trading forces retail traders to trade only on the spot market, artificially pushing individual assets to the top of turnover rankings.
- Technology barrier: Korean banks’ integrations involve testing software for internal fiat settlements, which does not require them to buy the native token on the market.
- Microscopic fees: AI agents pay gas fees in tiny fractions of $XRP, so millions of robot transactions do not affect the market supply.
Taking first place in South Korea by trading volume shows strong interest in the asset, as major businesses begin preparing the technical groundwork for future projects. However, the real impact of the banks’ programs on the token’s market value is delayed until full-scale platforms launch in 2027.
