Exchange
|5 min ReadNaver moves to take control of Korea’s Upbit
Maya Chen
Senior Analyst
Published
Jan 16, 2026
Big Tech meets the top exchange
Korea Blockchain Week is buzzing in Seoul. Eyes are on Korea. Local media say Naver plans a share swap with Dunamu, Upbit’s parent, that would make Dunamu a Naver subsidiary. That means the country’s biggest internet company would control its biggest crypto exchange. A strong signal. A very Korean playbook.
Korea’s crypto market is on fire. The five major exchanges count more than 9.6 million user accounts, about 18.7 percent of the population. Upbit holds over 80 percent market share. Daily volume often tops $10 billion. The Korean won is the world’s second most used fiat in crypto trading, behind the US dollar.
Upbit is not standing still. At its developer conference this month, Dunamu unveiled GIWA Chain and the GIWA wallet. The chain is a Layer 2 built on OP Rollup. It shows ambition to own both the trading front end and the on-chain rails.
Naver’s financial puzzle comes together
Naver is Korea’s internet champion, worth roughly $50 billion. It controls about 70 percent of search and runs a sprawling ecosystem. Many outside Korea know Naver through LINE, which has over 200 million users across Japan and Southeast Asia.
Naver has quietly built a financial stack. In 2019 it formed Naver Financial. In 2020 it launched digital banking. In 2024 it secured a brokerage license. Naver Pay counts 30 million users, making it the country’s largest mobile payments platform. It is part of daily life, from shopping to transfers to investing.
The Upbit deal would finish the puzzle. Payments via Naver Pay. Securities trading via Securities Plus. Crypto trading via Upbit. A KRW stablecoin on the way. In July, Naver and Dunamu said they would co-develop a won stablecoin. In September, Naver bought 70 percent of Dunamu’s Securities Plus Unlisted. The share swap now looks like the endgame. Dunamu’s estimated value is 8.26 trillion won, about $6 billion. If it closes, this would be the largest crypto M&A in Korea.
The upside is clear. Naver can offer a full fiat-to-crypto funnel under one roof. It can also export it. LINE gives Naver a distribution bridge to Japan and Southeast Asia. That is a beautiful growth channel if regulators align.
Chaebols meet Web3
This is not a one-off. Korea’s giants are marching in. Kakao moved early with Klaytn in 2019, pushing the Klip wallet to 50 million KakaoTalk users. In September, Klaytn and LINE’s Finschia merged to form the Kaia chain. Samsung built wallets into Galaxy phones starting in 2019, and its SDS unit sells enterprise blockchain tools. Traditional banks are in too. In August, KB Financial, Shinhan, and six others said they would co-develop a KRW stablecoin.
Policy and industry move in tandem. This year the government paused a CBDC push and backed private-sector stablecoin work. Korea does coordination. It does speed. It does scale.
The market is highly concentrated. Upbit at roughly 73 percent by volume. Bithumb around 25 percent. Coinone, Korbit, and the rest split the balance. A Naver-owned Upbit could push concentration even higher.
The new corporate era for crypto
This dynamic is global. In the Middle East, Binance reportedly received investment from Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund, with market chatter of multi-billion-dollar backing. Dubai’s royal family champions crypto projects. Saudi’s Public Investment Fund is exploring the space.
The US takes a different path. Wall Street absorbs crypto. BlackRock lists a Bitcoin ETF. Fidelity offers custody. Goldman trades. Coinbase remains independent but leans ever more toward institutions.
Japan moves carefully. Rakuten bought an exchange in 2018. SBI runs one of the largest local platforms. Corporate strategy there feels defensive, not aggressive.
The pattern rhymes. Independent crypto firms face a tighter lane. Institutional ownership of prime assets grows. Big centralized players and stablecoin issuers seek licenses, capital, and public listings. BTC and ETH are the core treasury assets for companies that want crypto exposure.
The market is splitting into layers. On top, an institutional, compliant, centralized world with ETFs, custodians, and licensed exchanges. Below, a community-led, experimental, decentralized world with perp DEXs and memes. Big capital serves mainstream users and institutions. The edges keep innovating. Whether that is good or bad depends on where you sit, but one thing is obvious. Korea is writing its own script, and the chaebols are front and center.
Disclaimer: This document is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. The views expressed in this document are not, and should not be taken as, investment advice or recommendations. Recipients should do their own due diligence, taking into account their specific financial circumstances, investment objectives and risk tolerance, which are not considered here, before investing. This document is not an offer, or the solicitation of an offer, to buy or sell any of the assets mentioned.