The head office of Hana Financial Group in Seoul. The financial conglomerate will invest $670 million to acquire shares of Dunamu, which operates the country’s leading cryptocurrency exchange, Upbit. File Photo by Jeon Heon-kyun/EPA
SEOUL, May 15 (UPI) — South Korea’s Hana Financial Group said Friday it would spend $670 million to acquire shares of Dunamu, the operator of the country’s leading cryptocurrency exchange, Upbit.
Its representative affiliate, Hana Bank, approved the purchase of a 6.55% stake in Dunamu from Kakao Investment to become the fourth-largest shareholder of the Seoul-headquartered digital asset company.
Separately, Hana Financial noted that it agreed to cooperate with Dunamu in developing innovative business models, which combine traditional financial services with digital assets.
Late last year, the two companies collaborated to develop blockchain-powered overseas remittance services and completed technical verification earlier this year.
“This equity investment is a strategic decision aimed at accelerating financial innovation based on digital assets,” Hana Financial Chairman Ham Young-joo said in a statement.
“In partnership with Dunamu, we will take a leading role in building the Korean blockchain ecosystem and devote all of our resources to helping the domestic digital asset industry rise to a global top position.”
Yoon Suk-bin, a special professor in the Graduate School of AI & Software at Sogang University, said he expected that similar partnerships would continue in coming years.
“An increasing number of legacy financial outfits are joining hands with blockchain companies and crypto exchanges both at home and abroad,” he told UPI. “Advanced economies began moving in that direction several years ago, and the shift is now widely seen as irreversible.”
The share price of Hana Financial fell 5.93% on the Seoul bourse on Friday as the benchmark KOSPI dropped 6.12% amid heavy foreign selling. Hana Bank is not publicly traded.