Chainlink, South Korean infrastructure provider FairSquareLab, the Unified Korea Alliance (UniKA), and European stablecoin consortium Qivalis have launched Project Pangea to modernise global foreign exchange markets.
The strategic collaborative task force aims to enable real-time, stablecoin-based cross-border settlement models, connecting dozens of financial institutions across Europe and South Korea.
UniKA represents a steering committee of five entities, including Shinhan Bank, JB Bank, Kbank, FairSquareLab, and OBDIA, alongside more than 10 commercial banks, while Qivalis is backed by 37 European banks.
The initiative focuses on the direct, atomic swap of regulated, fiat-referenced digital assets, such as euro and Korean won stablecoins.
The system uses the infrastructure of Chainlink alongside the onchain foreign exchange settlement technology developed by FairSquareLab.
Modernising global foreign exchange through Project Pangea
The global foreign exchange market processes over US$9.6 trillion in daily trading volume, but traditional banking systems face major bottlenecks because of fragmented market structures.
Institutions frequently delay cross-border transactions when they must convert capital into intermediary currencies during the settlement process.
Project Pangea plans to transform this system by using ISO 20022 messaging standards and existing Swift infrastructure.
This integration allows participating banks to execute direct, atomic Payment-versus-Payment (PvP) swaps of compliant stablecoins, achieving instant settlement.
The initiative focuses on three core pillars, which include enabling direct atomic transactions between compliant regional currencies, supporting instant settlement, and expanding onchain liquidity across various currency markets to provide frictionless access.
Technical infrastructure and orchestration
Chainlink provides the core infrastructure enabling existing financial platforms to connect with public and private blockchain networks using standard messaging networks.
The system relies on the Chainlink Cross-Chain Interoperability Standard to securely transfer stablecoins across native networks, helping to prevent liquidity fragmentation.
Additionally, Chainlink Data Streams deliver high-speed market data to power a Proactive Market Maker engine. This helps ensure onchain quotes remain synchronised with global markets.
The Chainlink Runtime Environment serves as the orchestration layer between Swift and blockchain networks. It allows financial firms to connect using their existing software systems.
FairSquareLab supports the network through its multi-currency stablecoin liquidity engine for interbank settlement. The system anchors price discovery directly to oracle quotes rather than a bonding curve to minimise slippage.
This system operates on the FairSquareLab Pangea L1 Network, a dedicated, neutral blockchain. The network is designed to execute oracle updates ahead of other transactions in each block.
“Project Pangea upgrades the fragmented foreign exchange model of today with direct, atomic currency swaps using stablecoins,”
said Fernando Vazquez, President of Capital Markets, Chainlink Labs.
He added that the standard powers global-scale settlement for capital markets as finance increasingly moves onchain.
“Project Pangea opens a path for the Korean won to connect more directly with global currency markets, reducing reliance on intermediary currencies,”
said Joonhong Kim, CEO, FairSquareLab.
Kim noted that the alliance brings the South Korean banking sector into a new era of real-time cross-border settlement.
Featured image credit: Edited by Fintech News Hong Kong, based on image by leungchopan via Magnific