Collective Change of Ownership for Crypto Exchanges? The Positioning Competition Among South Korea's Financial Giants

Author: Chloe, ChainCatcher

Last week, the South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Coinone officially announced the introduction of two heavyweight new shareholders. The global exchange OKX's venture capital arm, OKX Ventures, and South Korea's major brokerage Korea Investment & Securities (KIS) will each purchase approximately 19.6% to 20% of the equity for 80 billion Korean won (about 53 million USD), collectively acquiring nearly 40%, with OKX Ventures and KIS becoming the third-largest shareholders.

On the surface, this transaction is a story of "foreign capital knocking on South Korea's door," as OKX becomes another major international player directly holding significant equity in a licensed exchange in Korea, following Binance's acquisition of Gopax. However, if we zoom out, the true protagonist of this transaction is actually the Korean brokerage that is同行ing with OKX.

Korea Investment & Securities CEO Kim Sung-hwan also revealed the motivation: "This is our first step from traditional finance to blockchain digital financial services." For KIS, Coinone serves as a springboard, allowing it to enter new battlegrounds such as the issuance and circulation of security tokens (STO), stablecoin-related services, digital asset brokerage, and institutional-level crypto business.

It can be said that even this transaction, packaged as "foreign capital entering the market," is primarily driven by a local Korean brokerage, with foreign capital acting as minority financial investors riding on the coattails. Furthermore, when placed in the context of the past three months, this transaction at Coinone is just the tip of the iceberg of the entire South Korean crypto landscape.

Samsung's Subsidiaries Each Enter with Different Calculations

Just a day before Coinone's signing, on May 28, three companies under Samsung Group—Samsung Securities, Samsung SDS, and Samsung Card—also jointly announced plans to invest approximately 612.8 billion Korean won (about 408 to 446 million USD) to acquire a total of 4% equity in Dunamu, the parent company of South Korea's largest crypto exchange Upbit. Samsung Securities will take 2%, while Samsung SDS and Samsung Card will each acquire 1%. The transaction will be conducted in cash to acquire about 1.39 million shares from the Kakao Group's funds (including Kakao Investment, Kakao Ventures, etc.), with the deal expected to close on June 19.

Notably, the valuation: at a price of about 439,000 Korean won per share, this implies that Dunamu's overall enterprise value is estimated at about 15.3 trillion Korean won, equivalent to about 1.11 billion USD. The seller, Kakao Group's funds, will completely exit Dunamu through this large transaction, symbolizing that the "old shareholders" in the South Korean crypto landscape are being replaced by "new faces."

Moreover, the three Samsung subsidiaries each have different calculations for entering the market, and these calculations almost perfectly correspond to the three pillars of the "Digital Asset Basic Law" expected to be finalized in South Korea by 2026:

• Samsung Securities is focused on the issuance and circulation of security tokens and virtual asset-related services, corresponding to STO and tokenized securities.

• Samsung SDS, as the group's IT and cloud department, plans to integrate its capabilities in artificial intelligence, information security, and data governance into Dunamu's blockchain operational infrastructure, corresponding to underlying technology infrastructure.

• Samsung Card is targeting the digital asset payment ecosystem, planning to integrate crypto payments into Samsung's financial network's unified platform Monimo after the launch of the Korean won stablecoin, corresponding to the stablecoin payment track.

In other words, Samsung is not viewing this 4% as a mere financial investment but as a piece of the puzzle in the group's financial services strategy for the next decade. A Samsung insider told the Korea Times that this move aims to strengthen the competitiveness of each subsidiary in the digital asset business and assist the group in achieving a leading position in the market.

For one of South Korea's most significant conglomerates, this is equivalent to announcing to the market that it is building a complete digital asset infrastructure rather than making a gamble.

Traditional Capital is Eager, Is Virtual Asset a Blue Ocean?

Looking back a bit further, in mid-May, Hana Bank agreed to acquire a 6.55% stake in Dunamu for about 1 trillion Korean won (approximately 670 to 720 million USD), becoming the first South Korean financial holding group to directly hold equity in a crypto exchange. Less than ten days later, Hanwha Investment & Securities approved an additional investment of about 3.90%, raising its stake to 9.84%, investing an additional 597.8 billion Korean won, making it one of Dunamu's largest non-founder shareholders.

Additionally, Mirae Asset had already signed a deal through its subsidiary Mirae Asset Consulting in February to acquire a controlling stake of up to 92.06% in Korbit, South Korea's fourth-largest exchange, for about 133.5 billion Korean won. From the leading Upbit, the third-largest Coinone, to Korbit, almost every major exchange in South Korea has quickly replaced its backers with new faces from traditional finance within just a few months.

Why is traditional capital so eager? Dunamu's financial figures provide part of the answer: for the fiscal year 2025, it reported revenues of 1.56 trillion Korean won and a net profit of 708.8 billion Korean won, capturing over 80% of South Korea's virtual asset trading volume. The significance of this pie is self-evident for banks and brokerages.

Market Landscape is Chaotic, Institutions are Early to Position Themselves

A report released last week by research firm Tiger Research reviewed 150 institutions in South Korea and 196 partnerships, concluding with a key finding: currently, no single hub has achieved dominant control over the market.

The entire relationship map is complex and accurately reflects the current chaos in the market, indicating that various institutions are positioning themselves across different tracks before regulations are finalized.

This can be described as a "scramble for exchange equity," reflecting the series of actions from Hana, Hanwha, Samsung, Mirae Asset to KIS. Analysts believe that the essence of this competition is a "re-evaluation" of the value of crypto exchanges: exchanges are no longer just trading platforms that collect fees but are key customer touchpoints for distributing stablecoins, custody services, security tokens, and RWA products.

For banks and brokerages, acquiring stakes in exchanges is a shortcut: it allows them to indirectly obtain licenses such as VASP registration while simultaneously gaining access to the existing user base and liquidity of the exchanges.

Further analysis of this competition revolves around three fronts: stablecoins, STOs, and custody.

The maturity of these three fronts varies. The most active is the custody sector, where several players have begun providing services after crossing regulatory thresholds, with four major custodians—KODA, KDAC, BDACS, and BitGo Korea—each binding financial and technical partners; RWA and STO are mostly stuck at the contract or MOU stage, awaiting legislative effectiveness; stablecoins are similarly stagnant, with no party able to claim dominance in standard-setting.

The biggest bottleneck is not technical but legislative, as the Bank of Korea is pushing for the "51% rule," arguing that only alliances with majority bank ownership can issue stablecoins, which has faced strong backlash from fintech players, causing negotiations between political parties to be repeatedly delayed.

Currently, this wave of cooperation and acquisition should not be interpreted as ordinary business development but rather as institutions rushing to secure favorable arrangements before regulations are finalized, using these arrangements to influence the final regulatory framework. The current alliances and collaborations are less about seizing the market and more about "designing regulation."

Supporting this judgment is the clear shift in market focus. Analysts point out that the South Korean crypto market has been significantly restructured in just six months: the custody camp has formed, STO alliances have gathered, and financial giants are competing to acquire stakes in exchanges, while retail trading volume has rapidly shrunk, with the combined trading volume of the five major exchanges decreasing by about 48% year-on-year. The core of the market is quickly shifting from retail to institutional.

Conclusion

Putting together the pieces of OKX's investment in Coinone, Samsung's purchase of Dunamu, Hana and Hanwha's increased stakes, and Mirae Asset's acquisition of Korbit reveals that they are actually different facets of the same story, led by brokerages and banks working together to reposition the South Korean crypto landscape from a "retail speculative trading arena" to a "traditional financial digital asset distribution gateway."

However, since the operational mergers have yet to materialize, most collaborations remain MOUs, and STOs and stablecoins are still awaiting legislation, the market remains cautious and skeptical.

This shift is also changing the way overseas cryptocurrency projects enter the South Korean market. Just as Solana has become a partner of Shinhan Card and Avalanche has partnered with Mirae Asset, projects entering the South Korean market have shifted their primary targets from exchanges to financial institutions and large enterprises.