Korean won stablecoin KRWQ expands to Solana following March EDX Markets listing

KRWQ, a stablecoin pegged to the South Korean won, is expanding to Solana, the team announced on Wednesday.

IQ, the company that created the stablecoin in partnership with Frax, said that this effectively positions KRWQ as a core settlement asset for Korean won liquidity on Solana. 

"The Korean won is a major global currency with substantial activity in offshore derivatives markets, yet it has remained largely inaccessible in crypto-native trading systems," the company said in a statement shared with The Block. "[KRWQ allows] market participants to trade, hedge, and deploy capital using Korean won liquidity directly onchain."

According to IQ, the deployment will enable KRWQ to support various KRW-denominated trading applications on Solana, including perpetual futures, onchain foreign exchange markets, arbitrage strategies, cross-margin trading between KRW and USD stablecoins, and institutional and algorithmic trading systems.

The team cited Solana's low-latency execution and deep liquidity as reasons for deploying KRWQ on the Layer 1 network. 

"Solana provides the performance and ecosystem depth needed to scale KRW liquidity onchain," said Dave Shin, Chief Operating Officer of KRWQ. "We are seeing clear demand for non-USD trading pairs, particularly in derivatives."

This expansion is also expected to support integrations across Solana's decentralized exchange ecosystem and broader trading stack. As KRWQ's adoption grows, the team said it sees the stablecoin's usage in a wide range of applications, including cross-border settlement and AI-driven trading systems.

KRWQ launched last October as the first Korean won-denominated stablecoin on Base Layer 2. In March this year, KRWQ listed across both spot and perpetual markets on EDX Markets, including the launch of Korean won perpetual futures on EDXM International.

"By unifying roughly $40 billion in daily KRW spot volume with the approximately $60 billion offshore KRW Non-Deliverable Forward (NDF) market into a single, transparent onchain structure, KRWQ is establishing the foundation for a global, continuously traded Korean won market across institutional and onchain venues," the team said.

Meanwhile, South Korea is working to establish rules for stablecoins, as part of the Digital Asset Basic Act. With the legislation still under development, KRWQ is not yet marketed or offered to South Korean investors.