Ripple Custody is now live at Kbank, Korea’s first internet-only bank, marking the first deployment of Multi-Party Computation wallet infrastructure at a Korean digital bank. The announcement, made April 30, 2026, puts Kbank ahead of traditional lenders in the country’s race to build regulated digital asset operations before new legislation arrives.

Kbank already held a strong position in Korea’s crypto sector as the exclusive banking partner of Upbit, the country’s largest crypto exchange. This move goes further.

Kbank Ditches In-House Build for Bank-Grade Custody

Building wallet infrastructure from the ground up is expensive. It is also slow. Kbank’s decision to adopt Ripple Custody‘s wallet-as-a-service model cuts the cost and timeline of standing up institutional-grade security controls, high-speed transaction signing, and cross-chain asset management without the operational burden of maintaining that stack internally.

The MPC-based architecture distributes key management across multiple parties so no single point of failure can compromise assets. That matters for a regulated bank running custody operations at scale. Kbank now gets fast wallet provisioning, multi-blockchain support, and the security controls regulators expect, without needing to build and certify each layer on its own.

Fiona Murray, Managing Director for Asia Pacific at Ripple, said in the official announcement that Kbank has consistently set the pace for digital banking in Korea. As Ripple posted on X:

“Korea’s first internet-only bank, Kbank, is deploying Ripple Custody wallet infrastructure — institutional-grade, MPC-based wallet infrastructure to securely manage digital assets across multiple blockchain networks.”

Murray added that Korea’s institutional financial sector is at an inflection point, and that Ripple is the only company offering a complete digital asset infrastructure stack covering custody, wallet infrastructure, payments, and treasury management to support Korean institutions at each stage.

What the Infrastructure Actually Covers

Choi Woo-hyung, CEO of Kbank, tied the deployment directly to the bank’s stablecoin ambitions. The infrastructure, he said, marks a turning point in advancing Kbank’s stablecoin-based remittance capabilities. Ripple’s global network and blockchain technology are expected to help Kbank set a new standard for cross-border payments inside Korea’s changing financial environment.

That’s a different framing than a remittance pilot. The scope the bank described covers custody, wallet operations, and blockchain-based financial services more broadly.

South Korea is finalizing the Digital Asset Basic Act, a regulatory framework expected to formally classify stablecoins as payment instruments and set new requirements for custody and cross-border digital asset activity. Korean financial institutions have been accelerating infrastructure deals ahead of that law. Kbank’s MPC custody deployment fits directly into that pattern.

Ripple’s Korea Position Deepens

This is not Ripple’s only recent Korean deal. Earlier in April 2026, Ripple partnered with Kyobo Life Insurance to support tokenized government bond settlement through Ripple Custody. The same Asia Pacific leadership team at Ripple is behind both deals.

Ripple Payments has processed over $100 billion in volume globally, and the platform handles collection, holding, exchange, and payouts in both fiat and stablecoins. Kbank’s deployment adds institutional custody to that capability set inside Korea’s regulated banking environment.

Kbank’s user base grew from about 2 million in 2020 to 15 million by the end of 2025, driven in large part by Korean regulations requiring Upbit users to hold a verified bank account. Every trader on Upbit routes fiat through Kbank. That gives this infrastructure deployment more reach than a standard bank partnership.

Murray’s statement in the official press release confirmed Ripple sees Korea as one of its most important global markets. With Kbank now running bank-grade MPC wallet infrastructure and the Digital Asset Basic Act approaching, that position becomes harder for competitors to close.