Samsung affiliates acquire 4% of Upbit's Dunamu for $408M

Three Samsung affiliates have acquired a significant stake in South Korea's largest cryptocurrency exchange operator, marking a major corporate move into the country's digital asset sector. Samsung Securities, Samsung SDS, and Samsung Card announced Thursday they will jointly purchase a 4 percent stake in Dunamu, the company behind the Upbit exchange, for approximately 408 million dollars.

The affiliates will acquire 1.39 million shares from Kakao-linked entities, with Samsung Securities taking a 2 percent stake and Samsung SDS and Samsung Card each acquiring 1 percent. The transaction is scheduled to close on June 19. This investment provides the Samsung units with direct exposure to Upbit, which handled about two-thirds of South Korea's spot crypto trading volume last year.

Each affiliate outlined specific areas of planned collaboration with Dunamu. Samsung Securities intends to focus on the issuance and distribution of tokenized securities and other digital asset services. Samsung SDS, the group's IT services subsidiary, aims to combine its expertise in artificial intelligence, cloud computing, security, and data management with Dunamu's blockchain operational experience to...