Samsung affiliates are buying a combined 4% stake in Dunamu, the operator of South Korea’s largest crypto exchange Upbit, in a 612.8 billion won transaction worth roughly $408 million.
The deal gives Samsung Securities a 2% stake, while Samsung SDS and Samsung Card will each acquire 1%. Together, the three Samsung companies will buy about 1.39 million existing Dunamu shares from Kakao-linked sellers, including Kakao Investment and other affiliated funds. The transaction is scheduled to close on June 19.
The pricing puts Dunamu near a 15.3 trillion won valuation, keeping Upbit’s parent company among South Korea’s most important digital asset businesses even as the country’s crypto market faces tighter enforcement, exchange supervision and political attention.
Upbit remains the dominant trading platform in South Korea, with local market share often reported above 70% and Reuters recently placing its share of national virtual asset trading volume above 80%. That dominance makes Dunamu more than a passive crypto investment. It is a strategic position in Korea’s exchange liquidity, retail trading behavior, won-based crypto rails and future digital asset services.
Samsung’s entry also connects several parts of its financial ecosystem. Samsung Securities brings brokerage and capital-markets reach. Samsung Card brings consumer payments and card infrastructure. Samsung SDS brings enterprise technology, cloud and security capabilities. For a market moving toward stablecoins, tokenized securities and regulated custody, that mix gives Samsung a broader digital finance angle than a simple minority stake.
Kakao’s Dunamu Exit Becomes A Wider Market Reset
The Samsung transaction extends a rapid Kakao sell-down in Dunamu. Kakao has now sold major blocks to Hana Bank, Hanwha Investment & Securities and Samsung affiliates in less than a month, taking the total value of recent disposals to about $1.5 billion.
Hana Bank’s earlier 6.55% Dunamu purchase was worth about 1 trillion won and became one of the clearest signs that Korean banks want direct exposure to digital asset infrastructure. Hanwha Investment & Securities also moved to increase its Dunamu stake through a roughly 600 billion won purchase, strengthening its position among Upbit’s key shareholders.
The buyer list matters. Dunamu’s shareholder base is shifting from Kakao-linked venture exposure toward large financial and industrial groups that can plug crypto infrastructure into brokerage, banking, payments, cloud, remittances, custody and tokenized asset strategies.
That shift lines up with South Korea’s wider crypto market structure. Retail activity remains large enough that South Korea drives a major share of global crypto trading, while regulation is becoming more active across exchanges, transfers and investor protection. The court fight around Bithumb’s suspended business restrictions showed how closely local authorities are watching compliance, customer controls and market access.
For Samsung, Dunamu offers a direct route into Korea’s most important crypto exchange operator without taking full operational control. For Kakao, the sale frees capital while AI and platform strategy move higher on its priority list. For the market, the signal is stronger: Korea’s largest conglomerates and banks are no longer treating crypto exchanges as isolated trading businesses. They are becoming pieces of the next financial infrastructure stack.
