OKX Ventures invested $53 million to acquire a 19.6% stake in Coinone, marking the global exchange's latest foray into the South Korean cryptocurrency market.
OKX Ventures, the investment arm of global cryptocurrency exchange OKX , confirmed today an 80 billion won (approximately $53 million) investment to acquire a 19.6% stake in Coinone, one of five licensed cryptocurrency trading platforms in South Korea .
Korea Investment & Securities (KIS) also invested on a similar scale, making them the third largest shareholder group on the exchange, after CEO Cha Myung-hun, who holds 27.8%, and Com2uS Holdings and its affiliates, who hold 25%. The investment was made through a combination of secondary share acquisitions and registration of new share issuances, pending regulatory approval.
South Korea is becoming a strategic destination for global digital finance.
This deal is part of a wave of investment in the South Korean cryptocurrency market from both domestic institutions and international players. On the same day, three Samsung subsidiaries announced a $408 million investment in Dunamu, the parent company of Upbit, to acquire a 4% stake. Prior to this, Mirae Asset, with over $665 billion in assets under management, acquired a 92% stake in the Korbit exchange in February.
Large institutions such as KB Kookmin, Shinhan, and NHN KCP have also established partnerships with Solana and Avalanche to test payment systems using deposits tokenized into Token and stablecoins.
Netero Dai, Vice President of Global Markets at OKX, noted that South Korea is one of the world's most sophisticated digital asset markets with a highly regarded regulatory framework, and affirmed that the investment reflects the belief that the future of finance will be built on a compliant and tightly regulated infrastructure.
The two sides plan to exchange experiences on user protection, security, and risk management, while KIS will pursue cooperation on security Token and stablecoins. This whole wave is unfolding as South Korea is developing the Basic Law on Digital Assets, a comprehensive regulatory framework for crypto assets, although the law has faced numerous delays and its enactment date remains uncertain.
