South Korea's Hangang pilot reaches CU convenience-store checkouts

A bounded note on South Korea moving Project Hangang into named convenience-store payment pilots through CU, while staying explicit that the program remains a supervised test rather than a launch.

The April 2-3 MOU and companion bank and central-bank materials show Project Hangang Phase II is being wired into named convenience-store payment pilots through Hana-issued deposit tokens at CU, but the evidence still stops at pilot infrastructure and planned real-world testing rather than commercial launch, final settlement design, or permanent legal treatment.

BGF Retail said it signed an April 2, 2026 three-way MOU with Hana Bank and the Bank of Korea to take Project Hangang Phase II deposit-token payments into CU convenience stores using bank-app-linked barcode or QR checkout.

BGF Retail and Hana Bank say they have signed a three-way MOU with the Bank of Korea to test Hana-issued deposit-token payments across CU's roughly 18,800-store network under Project Hangang Phase II. The move broadens named retail acceptance inside a supervised pilot, not a commercial launch or a settled legal regime for deposit tokens.