Naver to acquire South Korean crypto exchange in $10.3 Billion Deal
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The news: Naver Corporation agreed to acquire Dunamu, the operator of Upbit, South Korea’s largest crypto exchange.
The numbers: The all-stock deal valued at around USD10.3 billion ($15.4 billion) will see Naver Financial Corp, the company’s fintech arm, issue 2.54 new shares for every 1 share in Dunamu.
The context: In a separate statement, Naver said that its stake in Naver Financial would drop to 17% after the share exchange, down from its current 70% holding.
Upbit is often ranked among the world’s leading five digital-asset exchanges with a market share of over 80%, Bloomberg reports.
Naver, known as ‘South Korea’s Google’ has been expanding into payments, cloud, AI and content about the past two decades and will likely use the Dunamu purchase to more deeply integrate itself into South Korea’s payments ecosystem. Around 18 million South Koreans trade crypto, with volumes sometimes surpassing stock market turnover.
The sources: Bloomberg, Korea Times, Tech in Asia, Naver acquisition filing, Naver share swap disclosure
