GOAT Network is partnering with Square Tech (KOSDAQ: 148250) to explore AI agent-powered stablecoin payments in South Korea.
The starting point is a stablecoin payment program for foreign tourists that Square Tech is developing with Lordsystem, a Korean mobile identity company. It aims to let visitors verify their identity with a mobile passport and pay participating merchants in US dollar stablecoins. The partnership will begin with an exploration of how GOAT Network’s agent payment technology can be used in that program.
Over two days at our KBW 2026 booth in Seoul, 310 purchases were made through a live AI agent - and for most people, this was the first time an agent had bought anything on their behalf. But what they wanted to know was not how it worked. It was when it would work somewhere other than a booth.
The partnership with Square Tech is an agreement to give them an answer. Consumer-facing features will arrive in phases, subject to Korean legal and regulatory review, and we will report what ships when it ships. But the choice of market is not incidental. We think South Korea is where agent payments leave the demo stage first, for three reasons.
The rules are arriving in a usable order
Korea's AI Basic Act came into force in January. The Digital Asset Basic Act, which would set the framework for digital assets including won-denominated stablecoins, is close behind it: at the National Assembly's audit of the Financial Services Commission on October 8th, FSC chairman Lee Eok-won said the bill is drafted and interagency consultation is in its final stage, with won stablecoin issuance rules among the open questions.
That sequence shapes the plan. The initial phase is planned around US dollar stablecoins, through arrangements that meet existing licensing and regulatory requirements, while the technical foundation is built so won stablecoins can be supported as the framework lands. Nothing about this waits for a law that does not exist yet, and nothing about it bets against the law that is coming.
Identity came first
The hard problem in agent payments is not moving money, but authorization: knowing that a verified person stands behind the agent, approved the purchase, and set the limits. Korea is unusually far ahead here. The tourist program's starting point is identity, a visitor's passport verified on their phone, before any payment happens.
The proposed solution adds the agent's side of that. Each AI agent will be assigned a verifiable onchain identity based on the ERC-8004 standard, spending will stay within defined limits, purchases will be authorized by the user, and every agent payment will be recorded so activity can be monitored.
The safeguards planned for AI agents that pay on a user's behalf.
Tourists are the right first users
Korea had 10.71 million foreign visitors in the first half of 2026, and their card spending passed 10 trillion won three months earlier than it did last year. Tourists are also the people local payment rails serve worst: foreign cards that fail at the terminal, apps that need a local phone number, prices in a currency they do not think in.
That combination is what makes this the right first market. A visitor who lands with dollar stablecoins and a phone should be able to pay a merchant without a Korean card, a Korean app, or a currency desk. That is the program Square Tech and Lordsystem are building. The exploration with GOAT Network is what comes after: letting the agent that planned the trip also handle the buying, within defined limits and with the user's authorization.
We are deliberate about where this stands. Agent payments today are less than 1 percent of e-commerce activity, and the average payment is still 32 cents, mostly machines buying data from machines. Booth demos do not change those numbers. Merchants, verified identity, and regulatory cover are what change them, which is why this agreement is about all three and not about another demo.
Who does what
Square Tech will lead business development, merchant partnerships, and regulatory engagement in Korea. GOAT Network will provide its agent payment technology and network infrastructure. DAC Labs will support technical integration, security reviews, and network operations. The companies intend to comply with the Electronic Financial Transactions Act, the Virtual Asset User Protection Act, and related Korean law, working with licensed providers where required.
Agentic commerce scales when businesses make their products and services accessible to AI agents, and when consumers can trust what an agent does with their money. That is what GOAT Flow exists for, and it is why the network underneath it is Bitcoin-secured infrastructure. South Korea is where we find out what that looks like on an ordinary shopping street.
Merchants who want their products ready for agents can start at goat.network/flow.
