Hana Bank, one of South Korea’s Big Four commercial lenders, will pay 1.003 trillion won ($670 million) for 2.28 million shares in Dunamu, the company behind Upbit. The deal makes Hana the fourth-largest shareholder at 6.55%. The shares come from Kakao Investment, which drops from roughly 10.6% to 4%. Closing date: June 15.
This is the largest single investment by a Korean bank in a digital asset company. Ever.
Upbit Controls 80% of Korean Crypto Volume. Now a Bank Owns Part of It.
Upbit handles over 80% of South Korea’s crypto trading volume. CoinMarketCap ranks it third globally among spot exchanges, with over $1 billion in daily volume. XRP volume on Upbit spiked past $330 million in 24 hours after the Hana announcement, beating Bitcoin’s $217 million and Ethereum’s $109 million on the same platform.
Korean retail investors have a deep relationship with crypto that goes beyond trading. Some have started selling their holdings to buy homes, with 324 homebuyers declaring crypto sales in their financing plans during the first reporting period. Hana is betting that the money flowing out of crypto into real estate will eventually flow back in through regulated channels. Its channels.
The Deal Includes a Won-Stablecoin Partnership
Alongside the equity purchase, Hana and Dunamu signed an MOU covering three areas: blockchain-based foreign currency remittances running on Dunamu’s Giwa network, a won-denominated stablecoin ecosystem, and a wealth management product that connects Upbit with Hana’s fund, pension, and trust infrastructure.
The remittance work is already past proof-of-concept. Hana and Dunamu completed a SWIFT-based remittance test on Giwa in February, then signed a three-way deal with Posco International in April for commercial pilots. The stablecoin piece is newer and ties into Korea’s evolving regulatory framework. Korea delayed its crypto tax four times before the finance ministry said it was done waiting. The regulatory backdrop is moving, and Hana wants to be positioned when it settles.
Naver Merger Vote Is Three Weeks Away
The timing is loaded. In November 2025, Naver announced an all-stock deal to acquire Dunamu valued at $10.3 billion. Shareholders vote on May 22. The share exchange is planned for June 30. Hana’s entry as a major shareholder lands right before that vote, adding a Big Four bank to the cap table alongside Korea’s biggest tech company.
Korea also introduced a 20% ownership cap for crypto exchanges in March, setting a ceiling on how deeply any single institution can embed itself. That cap means the land grab is on. Hana got its 6.55%. OKX is reportedly in talks for 20% of Coinone. Coinone was fined $3.5 million and had new user services suspended earlier this year, making it a cheaper target. The Korean exchange landscape is consolidating fast.
Hana Financial Chairman Ham Young-joo framed it directly: “This investment is a strategic move to accelerate financial innovation in digital assets.” For Kakao, the seller, the math is simpler. It invested in Dunamu early. This sale represents an estimated 300x return on its original position.
