Financial Firms Join Forces with Korean Crypto Exchanges

South Korean digital asset exchanges are seeking to strengthen their business foundations by partnering with financial firms. The move could potentially shake up the market dominated by Upbit and Bithumb, which together account for over 94% of trading volume.

The five largest won-based exchanges ranked by 24-hour trading volume on CoinGecko are Upbit (72.1%), Bithumb (22.3%), Coinone (4.3%), Korbit (1.0%), and Gopax (0.3%). The overall scale of trading continues to shrink, with average daily bitcoin trading value in won across the five exchanges decreasing by 40.7% from last month.

Coinone has received acceptance from the Financial Intelligence Unit for a change in major shareholders, allowing Korea Investment & Securities and OKX Ventures to secure a 20% stake each. Mirae Asset Consulting has acquired Korbit, investing 141.37 billion won to raise its stake to 97.15%. The Mirae Asset Group plans to pursue businesses linking traditional finance and digital assets.

Gopax has appointed Kim Na-young as its new CEO, who will focus on normalising management and resolving pending issues including VASP renewal. Dunamu, the operator of Upbit, is pursuing a comprehensive share exchange with Naver Financial, which will make Dunamu a wholly owned subsidiary once completed.