South Korea's Hana Bank is acquiring a stake worth approximately $670 million in Dunamu, the company behind the Upbit crypto exchange .
In a newly released filing , Hana Bank announced it will purchase 2.28 million shares of Dunamu from Kakao Investments for 1.003 trillion won (approximately $669.2 million). The transaction will be paid for in cash and represents 2.78% of Hana Bank's Capital .
The deal is expected to be finalized on June 15th. After that, Hana will hold 6.55% of Dunamu, becoming the fourth largest shareholder of the Upbit operating unit.
In a separate filing , Kakao Investments (part of the Kakao Group) confirmed the sale of 2.28 million Dunamu shares. After the transaction, Kakao holds 1.4 million shares, equivalent to 4.03% of Dunamu.
According to Newsis , this is the largest investment ever made by the South Korean banking industry in a digital asset business. Hana said its goal is to “increase competitiveness in the new financial landscape” through strategic equity investment.
Hana Financial Group (with net profit of approximately 4 trillion won last year, equivalent to $2.67 billion) has also been expanding its digital asset segment through international collaborations. In March, Hana's credit card company signed USDC related marketing agreements with Circle and Crypto.com, and partnered with Standard Chartered to jointly implement digital asset initiatives.
Earlier in 2024, Hana Bank and SK Telecom partnered with BitGo to establish BitGo Korea, in which Hana holds a 25% stake.
Meanwhile, Dunamu is currently processing a merger/acquisition deal with Naver Financial (the financial services arm of Naver Group). If completed, this transaction is expected to consolidate Upbit 's corporate structure into one of South Korea's largest technology conglomerates.
Upbit is currently the largest digital asset trading platform in South Korea, consistently holding over 80% of the market share in terms of volume. On CoinMarketCap, Upbit ranks 3rd in the spot exchange rankings, with a volume exceeding $1 billion in the last 24 hours.
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The article "Hana Bank buys $670 million worth of shares from Upbit 's parent company" first appeared on CoinMoi .
