Korea's Finance-Crypto Merge
Kiwoom Securities Discusses Bithumb Stake Amid South Korea's Accelerating TradFi-Crypto Convergence
Key Points
Hana Bank has disclosed it will acquire a $670 million stake in Dunamu (Upbit’s parent), and Samsung-affiliated entities are set to hold about $407.7 million in Dunamu, together constituting roughly 4% of the company.
Overseas platforms are expanding into Korea’s crypto scene, with OKX Ventures planning to buy a 19.6% stake in Coinone, while Binance has completed its acquisition of Gopax.
Regulatory moves under the Digital Asset Basic Act could cap a single shareholder’s stake at 20% by default, with the possibility of up to 34% under special circumstances, affecting ownership rules for exchanges.
Bithumb has selected Samsung Securities as lead manager for its Kosdaq listing, signaling a formal path to a potential public listing and closer integration with major financial institutions.
Kiwoom Securities’ talks with Bithumb involve a third-party allotment of new shares, a structure that could pave the way for a pre-IPO deal depending on how negotiations unfold.
Kiwoom Securities, one of South Korea's top retail brokerages, is in early talks to buy a stake in Bithumb, the country's second-largest crypto exchange, through a new share issuance, The Block and Seoul Economic Daily reported on June 29. The investment size and exact stake are still being negotiated, but sources describe Kiwoom as the current front-runner with three to four other financial groups still in the running.
The deal would mark the latest in a sweeping wave of traditional financial firms buying into South Korea's crypto sector. In May alone, Hana Bank spent $670 million for a 6.55% stake in Dunamu — Upbit's parent company — while three Samsung affiliates paid $408 million for a combined 4% slice of the same firm, according to Finance Feeds.
Bithumb Must Shed Shares to Meet New Ownership Rules
The rush to buy into Bithumb is partly driven by regulation. South Korea's forthcoming Digital Asset Basic Act would cap any single shareholder at 20% of a crypto exchange. Right now, Bithumb Holdings owns 73.56% of Bithumb — more than three times the proposed limit. That means Bithumb must dilute its ownership by over 50 percentage points, making a third-party share allotment a logical and urgent solution, according to CoinFomania.
The law does allow an exception. Regulators may permit a "new strategic partner" to hold up to 34% under special circumstances, TradingView reported. That ceiling could make a Kiwoom stake far more valuable than the minority positions Hana Bank or Samsung took in rival Dunamu. Final terms are expected to hinge on the law's enforcement decree, which has not yet been published.
Bithumb Eyes Kosdaq Listing With Samsung as Lead Manager
Bithumb has formal IPO ambitions. The exchange selected Samsung Securities as lead manager for a planned Kosdaq listing, signaling it wants a public market debut. However, a February 2026 system error — in which 620,000 fake Bitcoin were briefly distributed, triggering a flash crash — has pushed the likely listing date past 2028, according to Finance Feeds.
A Kiwoom investment would give Bithumb the capital it needs to stay healthy during that extended pre-IPO stretch. Bithumb said publicly that it is "discussing partnerships with various companies" but that "nothing has been specifically decided yet." Sources inside Kiwoom, however, describe Bithumb as the "last remaining prize" in South Korea's won-denominated exchange market, Seoul Economic Daily reported.
Rivals Race to Lock Up Stakes Across Every Major Korean Exchange
The Kiwoom-Bithumb talks are just one piece of a much larger scramble. On May 29, OKX Ventures and Korea Investment & Securities each agreed to buy a 19.6% stake in Coinone for roughly $53 million apiece. Overseas players are also moving fast — Binance completed its acquisition of Gopax after South Korean regulators approved the 67% deal in October 2025, The Block reported.
Upbit still dominates, controlling roughly 80% of domestic trading volume. Analysts describe the ongoing investment wave as a "trench war" for market share. The Hana Bank and Samsung investments cement their positions alongside the market leader, while Kiwoom and Korea Investment & Securities are betting on challengers Bithumb and Coinone to close the gap.
Tokenized Securities and Stablecoins Are the Real Long-Term Prize
Brokerages are not buying crypto exchanges just for trading fees. The deeper goal is position in South Korea's coming market for Security Token Offerings — where real-world assets like real estate or bonds are issued on a blockchain — and stablecoins. The 2024 Virtual Asset User Protection Act opened the door for brokerages to engage directly with digital assets for the first time, according to CoinFomania.
Hana Financial Group Chairman Ham Young-joo called the Dunamu investment a "strategic decision to accelerate financial innovation based on digital assets." For Kiwoom, owning a stake in Bithumb would mean an instant distribution network when tokenized products go live. Bithumb is also pursuing expansion into Southeast Asia, having signed a memorandum of understanding with Vietnam's SSI Digital — a global reach that may have given Kiwoom an edge over other bidders.
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