The Bank of Korea (BOK) has chosen its preferred supplier to build a pilot platform for its central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot.

South Korea's central bank has picked Ground X, a blockchain subsidiary of South Korea-based internet giant Kakao, the Korea Herald reported Tuesday.The deal is planned to be closed by the end of July with the pilot program commencing next month.It was reported in May that the BOK was seeking a technology supplier through an open bidding process, with the plan for simulations researching the practicalities of a CBDC involving banks and retailers to run from August to December.The BOK has said the pilot program was allocated for 4.9 billion won ($4.4 million), according to the Korea Herald's report.Ground X launched its own blockchain Klaytn in 2018, on which it stores and verifies unlisted investments as non-fungible tokens as of February this year.Seoul-based Shinhan bank announced in March it had built a blockchain-based platform for a potential South Korean CBDC. Shinhan last month joined Klaytn's governance council to partake in the platform’s blockchain operation and develop a number of Klaytn-based digital services for South Korea’s fintech ecosystem. The central banks of almost all major economies have shown an interest in investigating or developing a CBDC in recent years, with China's digital yuan (or E-CNY) the closest to fruition. Along with Sweden, South Korea appears to be leading the pack in China's wake.