Who Is Sangmin Seo? The Kaia Chairman Who Merged Kakao's and LINE's Blockchains

Sangmin Seo, known in English as Sam Seo, is the chairman of the Kaia DLT Foundation who says a test transfer on Kaia cost under 1,250 won against about 9,600 won through a bank's SWIFT route. He led the Klaytn Foundation into its 2024 merger with LINE's Finschia, and he's steering Kaia toward regulated won payments.

Those two numbers hold up. With Kaia's cost under 1,250 won, the saving is at least 86.98% of the bank fee, and that's the 87% cut Kaia published after Seo's April 2026 keynote at South Korea's National Assembly. The bank route took one to three business days against Kaia's three minutes or less, and Seo has named the first half of 2027 for a commercial launch.

Sangmin Seo at a Glance

Who Is Sangmin Seo?

Sangmin Seo is the engineer who has chaired the Kaia DLT Foundation since its registration in Abu Dhabi in August 2024, after years of building Klaytn inside Kakao's blockchain businesses. Chosun Biz described the foundation in April 2026 as running independently of both Kakao and LINE.

Kaia is a Layer 1 network, the base of the stack in our guide to blockchain layers from Layer 1 to Layer 3. Seo's CoinDesk author bio calls his foundation a non-profit set up "to accelerate global adoption and ecosystem maturity of the Kaia blockchain".

Kaia's blog called Seo the foundation's chairman in April 2026, and a release on a security deal in late September 2026 gave him the same title.

Sangmin Seo's Career and Education

Seo holds a B.S. in computer science and engineering and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science from Seoul National University, according to that CoinDesk bio.

His career ran through Kakao. He was chief technology officer at Ground X, the Kakao blockchain subsidiary that developed Klaytn, and Chosun Biz adds that he was also its chief product officer.

He served as Chief Klaytn Officer at Krust Universe as well, a Kakao venture and blockchain subsidiary where he led the development and operation of the Klaytn blockchain. Before the merger he was Representative Director of the Klaytn Foundation and led its ecosystem expansion.

Phemex's 2021 guide to Klaytn covers the chain Seo helped run as it stood three years before it became Kaia.

Who Founded Kaia Crypto?

Kaia has no single founder in the usual crypto sense, because the chain came out of a merger of two older networks, Kakao's Klaytn and LINE's Finschia. Seo is the closest fit for the title, since he led the Klaytn side into the deal and then took the chair of the merged foundation.

Governance members of both chains approved the merger on 15 February 2024 with 90% of Klaytn's vote and 95% of Finschia's. The release on the result quoted Seo, then the Klaytn Foundation's Representative Director, saying "Together we will build Asia's best blockchain ecosystem that will create greater future value."

The pitch was scale. The release promised about 420 dapps and more than 45 governance partners on one chain, and it billed the result as Asia's largest Web3 ecosystem. Our explainer on what Web3 is and how trustworthy it is weighs up that promise.

On 16 August 2024 Kaia's blog said the foundation had completed its registration in Abu Dhabi Global Market. It quoted Seo as chairman calling the step "the final and most important milestone before the launch of the Kaia mainnet". The mainnet went live on 29 August 2024, the date Kaia announced for the launch on its blog, 196 days after the vote.

What Is Kaia Doing Under Sangmin Seo?

Under Seo, Kaia is betting its next stage on regulated won payments. On 7 April 2026 he gave the keynote at a stablecoin seminar in South Korea's National Assembly, hosted by lawmaker Min Byung-deok. There he presented Kaia's technical blueprint for a won stablecoin.

Kaia's blog framed the push against the dollar, noting that over 90% of the stablecoin market runs on the US dollar. Our guide to stablecoin types and trading covers the dollar coins a won coin would compete with.

Seo gave the numbers behind the claim in a 5 April 2026 interview with Chosun Biz. A bank's SWIFT transfer abroad took one to three business days and cost about 9,600 won. The same transfer on Kaia settled within three minutes for under 1,250 won. One minus 1,250 divided by 9,600 is 86.98%. Kaia's blog reports the cut in transaction costs as 87%.

The test sent money from Korea to Vietnam with a major Korean bank and three infrastructure partners, and Kaia posted the results on 26 March 2026. Kaia's won-stablecoin page names three banks as partners, KB Financial Group among them.

In the same interview Seo was frank about the LINE side of the business. The Mini Dapps that Kaia runs inside the LINE messenger lowered the barrier to Web3, he said, but the game-centred ones couldn't keep users engaged because their hype cycles were short. So Kaia is shifting its weight to finance and plans to tie the Mini Dapp ecosystem to stablecoins.

He called the first half of 2027 the realistic target for a commercial launch, after a pilot with the bank in the second half of 2026. He also tied the plan to South Korea passing its Digital Asset Basic Act, so the date depends on lawmakers as much as on Kaia.

In late September 2026 the foundation signed a three-year commercial agreement with BTQ Technologies to bring post-quantum security to Kaia, with LINE NEXT's Unifi stablecoin wallet among the first consumer use cases. Seo said in BTQ's release that "infrastructure has to be ready for threats that are years away", the same worry that drives coins such as Quantus, the post-quantum coin.

Why Are People Searching for Sangmin Seo?

Most of the interest follows the coin, which jumped in early October 2026 on a new listing on South Korean won markets.

If you search for Sam Seo, you'll also get pages on search engine optimisation and on namesakes, including a different Seo Sang-min with his own Wikipedia entry. Adding Kaia to the search is what finds the foundation's chairman.

Phemex has delisted its KAIA pairs, the spot market and the perpetual, so the futures links on this page take you to Phemex's wider crypto futures board. Futures use leverage, and a leveraged position is closed automatically if losses reach its margin.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Sam Seo of Kaia?

Sam Seo is the English name used by Sangmin Seo, chairman of the Kaia DLT Foundation. He ran the Klaytn Foundation before Klaytn merged with LINE's Finschia in 2024 to form Kaia, and he has led Kaia's move into won-stablecoin payments since then.

Who is the founder of Kaia crypto?

Kaia has no one founder, since governance members of Klaytn and Finschia voted the two chains together in February 2024. Seo, who headed the Klaytn Foundation, became chairman of the foundation that launched Kaia that August.

What did Sangmin Seo do before Kaia?

He was chief technology officer at Ground X, the Kakao subsidiary that built Klaytn, and later Representative Director of the Klaytn Foundation. Both of his degrees, a B.S. and a Ph.D., come from Seoul National University and cover computer science.

When will Kaia's won-stablecoin service launch?

In an April 2026 interview Seo put the realistic commercial target at the first half of 2027. The timing rests on a bank pilot going to plan and on South Korea passing its Digital Asset Basic Act.

Is Sangmin Seo the Kaia chairman or the CEO?

His title is chairman of the Kaia DLT Foundation, the non-profit behind the Kaia blockchain. Kaia's own blog uses it, and BTQ Technologies used it again in its late-September 2026 release on their post-quantum deal.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and is not financial advice. Cryptocurrency trading involves substantial risk. Always do your own research before making investment decisions.