Dr. Sangmin Seo, known as Dr. Sam, is a blockchain pioneer and the visionary CEO and Chairman behind Kaia DLT Foundation, the force driving Asia’s largest Web3 ecosystem. With a strong technical background and leadership experience at Kakao’s blockchain ventures, he led the merger of Klaytn and Finschia blockchains to create Kaia. Today, Kaia powers seamless Web3 experiences integrated into everyday superapps like KakaoTalk and LINE, reaching over 250 million users across Asia.
Fresh off the announcement of Project Unify, a stablecoin-powered Web3 superapp developed with LINE NEXT, Kaia DLT Foun dation is positioning itself at the center of Asia’s digital payments transformation. To discuss the vision behind Unify, the challenges of consolidating Asia’s fragmented payment landscape, and what comes next for the region’s largest Web3 ecosystem, DL News sat down with Dr. Sangmin Seo (“Dr. Sam”), Chairman and CEO of Kaia.
How does the launch of Project Unify on LINE Messenger fulfil Kaia’s vision after merging Klaytn and Finschia?
Kaia was launched just over a year ago, following the merger of Klaytn and Finschia and the establishment of one of the first blockchain entities in the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM).
Since then, we have worked with LINE NEXT to build the Dapp Portal, which now hosts more than 100 Mini Dapps inside LINE Messenger, driving over 130 million users.
Project Unify represents the natural next step: integrating Kaia’s stablecoin orchestration layer into Asia’s leading messaging platform to create a comprehensive Web3 superapp with payments, DeFi, DEX, games, and more
What makes Asia’s stablecoin market unique, and why is now the right time for Kaia to launch a superapp like Unify?
Asia is the world’s largest and most fragmented payments market. With 49 countries, ~5 billion people, and nearly half of global GDP, the region moves enormous value across borders every day.
Yet digital payments remain highly fragmented across regulatory systems, currencies, and infrastructures. Unlike Europe, there is no unified network for seamless digital payments.
The timing is critical: remittance flows to Asia already exceed $130B annually, and cross-border e-commerce in Southeast Asia, Korea, and Japan is projected to grow 70% by 2027. Tourism cross-border spend is set to jump 334% in the same period.
Project Unify is designed to bring order to this fragmented landscape by leveraging Kaia’s stablecoin orchestration layer to consolidate multiple regional stablecoins - from the Japanese yen and Thai baht to the Korean won and Indonesian rupiah - into one seamless app experience. This creates a single gateway for issuance, payments, and yield opportunities across Asia.
Which core experience are you focused on perfecting first?
Our first focus is on making stablecoin payments available everywhere. Today, functionality is often limited to specific regions. Project Unify will allow users not only to send and receive stablecoins, but also to transfer assets as easily as sending a text, and to participate in staking and DeFi opportunities directly within the app.
How will Kaia manage liquidity, stability, and user choice when supporting stablecoins pegged to multiple Asian currencies?
Liquidity is always the biggest challenge for multi-currency stablecoin systems. Our approach has three parts:
- Seeding liquidity with partners: We’ll work directly with regional stablecoin issuers and liquidity providers to inject liquidity at launch. Kaia will also incorporate the stablecoin ecosystem with our RWA projects as liquidity resources.
- Kaia as a stablecoin orchestration layer: Our orchestration layer includes a liquidity hub, a yield engine, an FX engine for efficient cross-currency swaps, and built-in on- and off-ramps to make stablecoins usable in real-world payments. Kaia’s FX engine will enhance the stability of multi-currency stablecoins by providing stablecoin-optimized swaps with high capital efficiency.
- Use case-driven growth: We believe that once some use cases - like a payment corridor between two stablecoins (e.g., KRW–THB) - are live and make adoptions, user demand will drive liquidity naturally.
And, of course, the Kaia DLT Foundation will participate where needed to jumpstart the cycle.
How will the real-time incentive system work, and what makes it different from traditional rewards programmes?
Traditional staking programs often involve lock-ups or delays before users can access their rewards. With Project Unify, our aim is to reward users immediately when they deposit stablecoins into their wallet, rather than requiring long lock-up or unstaking periods. We want to make incentives available instantly so users can see the benefit from day one. Combined with features like on/off-ramps, merchant payments, and integrations with 100+ Web3 apps, this approach is designed to drive both trust and everyday use.
What are the biggest challenges to unifying Asia’s fragmented payment infrastructure through Kaiai’s stablecoin orchestration layer?
The challenge is scale. Asia drives ~39% of global exports and ~37% of imports, yet payments still run on slow, fragmented rails. For example, remittance inflows to India alone reached $129B last year, while the Philippines, Pakistan, and Indonesia each saw tens of billions more.
To unify this flow, regulatory compliance in each jurisdiction is critical. That’s why Project Unify is partnering with licensed stablecoin issuers across Asia to ensure compliance and build a reliable orchestration layer. Our approach combines on-chain liquidity management, issuance, and compliant on-/off-ramps to make stablecoins a seamless part of daily life.
What lessons from the 130 million new users brought in by Mini Dapps on LINE are shaping the way you scale Unify?
The launch of Mini Dapps earlier this year brought over 130 million users into our ecosystem, making Kaia one of the most active blockchains globally according to Dune Analytics.
The key lesson is clear: mainstream adoption happens when Web3 is integrated into the applications people already use daily.
With Project Unify, we are expanding this model by adding stablecoin payments and financial services, ensuring that the same users who play games on LINE can also access payments, savings, and DeFi seamlessly.
How does Kaia plan to stand out from other stablecoin issuers as the global stablecoin competition grows?
Most stablecoin projects focus on a single market or currency. Kaia is built differently. Project Unify will be available as a Mini Dapp operated by LINE NEXT - one of the most widely adopted digital ecosystems in Asia.
Distribution is the deciding factor in stablecoin adoption. Whoever controls the channels people already use for payments, messaging, and digital services will lead the market. By combining LINE NEXT’s reach with Kaia’s infrastructure, Project Unify aims to consolidate multiple regional stablecoins - from the yen and won to the baht and peso - into a single, user-friendly platform. This positions Kaia as the gateway for Asia’s stablecoin economy.
Asia’s future is stable.