The encrypted group? A card competition for the Korean financial giant

By Chloe, Challenger

 

Last week, the Korea Encrypted Currency Exchange Coinone officially announced the introduction of two new heavyweight shareholders. OKX Ventures, a start-up sector of the Global Exchange OkX, and Korea Investment &s, a Korean issuer, will each subscribe to approximately 19.6 to 20 per cent of their shares in the order of 80 billion won (approximately US$ 53 million), each of which will total nearly 40 per cent, and the third largest shareholders in the KIS。

On the face of it, the deal is a story of “foreign capital knocks on Korea’s doors,” such as that of OkX becoming another international front player with a major stake in South Korea’s licensed exchange, following the acquisition of Gopax. But if you pull the camera away, the real main character of the deal is actually the Korean coupon with OkX。

Kim Sung-hwan, the CEO of Korean Investment Securities, also lit up the motive: “This is the first step in moving from traditional finance to block-chain digital financial services.” For KIS, Coinone is a springboard that allows it to enter new battlegrounds such as issuing and circulating securities-type tokens (STOs), stabilizing currency-related services, digital asset brokers, and agency-level encryption。

It can be said that even this transaction, which is packaged as “foreign entry”, is dominated by a Korean-owned coupon dealer, who in turn appears to be a few financial investors on a ride. And Coinone put the deal in the vein of the last three months or more, the tip of the iceberg for the whole of Korea。

Three Stars each entered with a different set of calculations

Just the day before Coinone signed up, on 28 May, Samsung Group companies, Samsung securities, Samsung SDS, and Samsung credit cards jointly announced that they would spend approximately 612.8 billion won (approximately $4.08 to $446 million) on the acquisition of 4 per cent of shares in Dunamu, the parent company of the Korea's largest encryption exchange Upbit. Three-star securities, 2 per cent, three-star SDS and one per cent each of Samsung's credit cards, were traded in full cash to buy approximately 1.39 million shares from the Kakao Foundation (including Kakao Investment, Kakao Ventures, etc.) and are expected to be delivered by 19 June。

It is worth noting that the valuation: the price of approximately 43.39 million won per share means that the total value of Dunamu ' s business is estimated at approximately 15.3 trillion won, or $11.1 billion. The seller, Kakao, withdrew from Dunamu with the full amount of the large transaction, and the symbol of “old shareholders” on the Korean encryption map is being replaced by “new faces”。

Moreover, the three Samsung companies each entered the field with a different set of calculations, which correspond almost perfectly to the three pillars of the Digital Assets Basic Law expected to be finalized in 2026:

• TRISTAR SECURITIES LOCK ON THE ISSUANCE AND CIRCULATION OF SECURITIES-TYPE TOKENS AND VIRTUAL ASSET-RELATED SERVICES, CORRESPONDING TO STOS AND TOKENIZED SECURITIES。

• Samsung SDS, as the group ' s IT and cloud-end sectors, intends to marry artificial intelligence, information security and data governance to Dunamu ' s block chain operating infrastructure, corresponding to the base technology infrastructure。

• Tristar credit cards aim at digital asset payment ecology and plan to integrate encrypted payments into Monimo, the integration platform of the Samsung financial network, following the launch of the Korean dollar stabilization currency。

In other words, Samsung does not consider this 4 per cent as a mere financial investment, but rather as a puzzle of the group's financial services strategy for the next 10 years. A Samsung said to Korea Times that the aim was to enhance the competitiveness of subsidiaries in digital asset operations and to assist the group in gaining leadership in the market。

For one of Korea ' s most important financiers, it is equivalent to a market where a complete digital asset infrastructure is built rather than a bet。

The traditional money is huge. The virtual asset is a blue sea

More time goes by, and in mid-May the Hana Bank agreed to buy about 1 trillion won (about $6.7 to $720 million) of Dunamu's 655% interest, becoming the first Korean financial holding group to hold a direct share in an encrypted exchange. In less than 10 days, Hanwha Investment &s approved an increase of about 3.90 per cent, raised the shareholding to 9.84 per cent and hit an additional 597.8 billion won as the largest non-founder shareholder in Dunamu。

In addition, Mirae Asset signed as early as February through the flag of future asset advisers to buy up to 92.06 per cent of the holdings of Korea’s fourth largest exchange, Korbit, about $133.5 billion. From the head Upbit, the third-largest coinone, to Korbit, almost every major exchange in Korea has, in a few months, replaced a new face of traditional finance。

Why are these traditional funds so high? Dunamu’s financial figures provide a partial answer: in fiscal year 2025, it handed over 1.5 trillion won and 708.8 billion won net gains, which can be said to capture more than 80% of South Korea’s virtual asset transactions. For banks and coupons, the significance of the pie is self-evident。

Markets are in a state of disarray

The research institute, Tiger Research, published a report last week, took stock of 150 Korean institutions working with 196 groups and concluded that there is no single hub to gain market-led control。

The complex picture of the relationship is a true reflection of the confusion in the current market, and it can be seen that the various institutions are running their cards simultaneously on the various tracks before the regulation is finalized。

This could be said to be an "Exchange Equity Competition" that mirrors the chain of Hanya, Hanhua, Samsung, future assets to KIS. The analysis suggests that the nature of the competition is a “re-evaluation” of the value of an encrypted exchange: the exchange is no longer merely a platform for transactional fees, but a key customer point for the distribution of stable coins, hosting services, securities-type tokens and RWA products。

FOR BANKS AND COUPONS, ENTERING THE STOCK EXCHANGE IS A SHORTCUT: THIS ALLOWS FOR THE INDIRECT ACQUISITION OF LICENCES SUCH AS VASP REGISTRATIONS AND, AT THE SAME TIME, ACCESS TO THE USER BASE AND LIQUIDITY OF THE EXCHANGE。

THE COMPETITION WAS FURTHER ANALYSED AND FOCUSED ON THREE FRONTS: STABILIZATION CURRENCY, STO AND TRUSTEESHIP。

The maturity of the three fronts is mixed. The most active activities are in the field of trusteeship, where many operators have actually provided services after crossing the regulatory threshold, and where the four major custodians, KODA, KDACC, BDACS, Bitgo Korea, have their own financial and technical partners; where RWA and STO are mostly at the contract or MoU stage, awaiting the entry into force of legislation; and where the stabilization currency has also stalled, no one has yet claimed ownership of standard-setting。

The biggest of these is not technology, as is legislation, where the Central Bank of Korea is pushing “51% rule” to argue that only a majority-owned union of banks can issue a stable currency, which has been strongly repulsed by financial technologists, and has led to protracted negotiations in the field。

The current wave of cooperation and acquisitions should not be interpreted as a general commercial development, but rather as an institutional pre-emptive arrangement that would influence the framework for final regulation. It is more of a “design regulation” than a market grab。

THIS JUDGEMENT IS UNDERPINNED BY A CLEAR SHIFT IN MARKET FOCUS. THE ANALYSIS INDICATED THAT THE KOREAN ENCRYPTION MARKET HAD BEEN SIGNIFICANTLY RESTRUCTURED IN JUST SIX MONTHS: THE HOSTING CAMP HAD BEEN FORMED, THE STO COALITION HAD GATHERED AND THE GOLD-CONTROLLED GIANTS HAD COMPETED FOR THE STOCK EXCHANGE, WHILE THE BULK TRADING VOLUME HAD BEEN RAPIDLY SHRINKING AND THE COMBINED TRADING VOLUME OF THE FIVE MAJOR EXCHANGES HAD DECREASED BY ABOUT 48 PER CENT ANNUALLY. AT THE HEART OF THE MARKET, A RAPID SHIFT IS TAKING PLACE FROM THE DIASPORA TO INSTITUTIONS。

Concluding remarks

Cominone, Samsung, buying into Dunamu, Hanya and Hanhua, and taking down Korbit, together, will find that they are actually different sides of the same story, led by issuers and banks, and will work to reposition Korea’s encrypted maps from the “Bulk Speculator Exchange” to the “Traditional Financial Digital Asset Distribution Portal.”。

HOWEVER, AS THE CURRENT CONSOLIDATION OF THE OPERATIONAL LEVEL HAS NOT MATERIALIZED, MOST OF THE COOPERATION IS STILL MOU, AND THE STO AND STABLE CURRENCY ARE STILL AWAITING LEGISLATION, WITH RESERVATIONS AND DOUBTS ON THE MARKET。

This shift has also changed the way money projects abroad are entering the Korean market. Just as Solana became a partner with Shinhan Card, and Avalanche a partner with Mirae Asset, the project to enter the Korean market shifted its main objective from an exchange to financial institutions and large enterprises。