Toss Goes Full Degenerit: Korean Super App Considers Own L1/L2 Chain and Native Token for 'Money 3.0' Push

Korean super app Toss is now eyeing its own Layer 1 or Layer 2 blockchain with a native token to fuel its "Money 3.0" stablecoin ambitions, because apparently building a 30-million-user financial empire wasn't enough degentrification for one lifetime. Seoul's tightening the screws on digital asset regulation, and Toss wants in before the gate closes.

South Korean payment and banking leviathan Toss is mulling over whether to spin up its own blockchain network and drop a native cryptocurrency onto the market, according to sources cited by The Block. If it happens, this would transform the super app from a Web3-curious fintech into a full-stack digital asset platform—the kind of vertical integration that makes TradFi boomers weep into their spreadsheets.

Insiders told Crypto In America that Toss is currently torn between launching a standalone Layer 1 mainnet or going the Layer 2 route, with no final call made yet. The Basic Law on Digital Assets—the Korean government's attempt to wrangle the Wild East of crypto—is looming large over this decision, as it promises to lay down the law on token issuance, stablecoins, and crypto ETFs. Nothing says "exciting regulatory clarity" like a bill that could either legitimize your entire business model or bury it under compliance paperwork.

Toss, run by Viva Republica, has come a long way from its humble mobile transfers origins. Today it's a financial super app behemoth with over 30 million registered users and roughly 24 million monthly active users as of 2024, offering around 290 services spanning payments, trading, lending, and probably things we haven't even thought of yet. At this point, it's less of an app and more of a parallel economy with good UX.

The Korea Herald reports that Toss pulled in roughly $1.8 billion in revenue during 2025—a tidy 38% year-over-year bump. Operating profit? Up 270.3% to about $251 million. Net profit? A absolutely unhinged 846.7% jump to roughly $151 million. These numbers are so good they make Silicon Valley VCs question their life choices.

At the 2026 Seoul Blockchain Meetup, Toss corporate development director Seo Chang-whoon declared the company is "moving toward a new 'Money 3.0' era centered on blockchain and stablecoins," laying out a vision where programmable money makes finance "universal, programmable, verifiable, composable and seamless." That's a lot of buzzwords, but the vibe is clear: Toss wants to own the rails.

The Basic Law on Digital Assets—lovingly dubbed a "foundational" crypto statute by Korean lawmakers—is expected to impose rigorous requirements on stablecoin issuers, including mandatory 100% reserve backing in low-risk assets and potential caps that favor bank-led consortia. Lawmaker Min Byeong-deok has hailed the bill as "a significant turning point for the future of digital finance in the Republic of Korea," arguing it'll finally give local firms a legal pathway to issue won-denominated tokens instead of shipping their operations overseas like refugees from regulatory hell.

Industry watchers are calling the second half of 2025 through the first half of 2026 the "explosive growth window" for Korean stablecoins. Payments firms including Toss, Kakao Pay, and Naver Pay are all gearing up to roll out won-backed tokens and test cross-border use cases. It's basically a race to see who can tokenize the Korean won first—bragging rights and market dominance on the line.

For Toss, a proprietary blockchain and native token could serve as the backbone for that entire strategy, supporting everything from loyalty programs and remittances to on-chain credit products that hook its SohoScore small-business credit model into smart contracts. Imagine your business loan living on-chain. Actually, maybe don't imagine that. Or do. Depends how much you trust smart contracts with your credit rating.

"By 2026, we aim to complete a borderless financial super app by redesigning money itself—removing boundaries across borders, products, time and entities," Seo said, framing the blockchain push as essential infrastructure for Toss's next growth phase. In other words: the game is to become the entire financial operating system.

Whether Toss ultimately goes full Layer 1 or opts for a Layer 2 riding on existing ecosystems will probably depend on how aggressively the Basic Law pushes stablecoin issuance toward bank-controlled consortia—and how much room it leaves for fintechs to build their own chains. The regulatory dice are rolling, and Toss is trying to guess where they'll land.