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Upbit, the trading platform that routinely eats up more than 70% of South Korea\u2019s crypto volume, is inching toward a future Nasdaq debut thanks to a corporate tie-up involving tech titan Naver.<\/p>\n
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A multibillion-dollar stock-swap merger between Naver Financial and Dunamu, Upbit\u2019s parent company, is reportedly<\/a> set for board approval on November 26. SE Daily first broke the story<\/a>. <\/p>\n The KRW 20 trillion ($14.5 billion) deal would make Upbit a wholly owned Naver subsidiary and potentially set the stage for a U.S. listing, echoing a wave of crypto firms rushing into public markets. <\/p>\n With Dunamu\u2019s profits dwarfing Naver\u2019s and minority shareholders pushing for a higher valuation, the revised exchange ratio underscores just how central Upbit has become to Korea\u2019s financial infrastructure. <\/p>\n The two companies agreed to raise the exchange ratio to roughly 1:3.3\u20133.4 in favor of Dunamu, following minority shareholders\u2019 complaints that earlier proposals undervalued the Upbit operator. <\/p>\n Dunamu posted KRW 1.186 trillion in operating profit at the end of 2024\u2014nearly 10 times Naver Financial\u2019s 103.5 billion won. It boasts $165 million net income in the third quarter of 2025, up 300% year-over-year.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n A merger would give Naver control over more than 70% of South Korea\u2019s crypto trading volume. Upbit\u2019s dominance has remained unshaken through 2024 and 2025, touching 80% in some months. <\/p>\n Data from the Financial Supervisory Service showed the exchange processed 833 trillion won ($642 billion) in transactions in the first half of 2025 alone. <\/p>\n The merger also comes as crypto companies rush to capitalize on resurgent public-market interest. <\/p>\n Galaxy Digital shifted its listing to Nasdaq earlier this year, and Kraken confidentially filed an S-1 for a planned 2026 offering. Circle, Gemini, Bullish, and Figure have already listed in New York, while Grayscale announced on November 12 that it plans to go public under the ticker \u201cGRAY.\u201d<\/p>\n Upbit rival Bithumb has spun off non-core divisions and tapped Samsung Securities to lead its upcoming KOSDAQ listing, while also weighing a possible dual listing on Nasdaq.<\/p>\n Still, the public markets aren\u2019t for everyone. Phantom Wallet\u2019s CEO has confirmed the company has no plans to launch a native blockchain or go public, underscoring that market exits are not one-size-fits-all even as investor appetite grows.<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Upbit, the trading platform that routinely eats up more than 70% of South Korea\u2019s crypto volume, is inching toward a future Nasdaq debut thanks to a corporate tie-up involving tech…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6444,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cryptocurrency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16528"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16528\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16529,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16528\/revisions\/16529"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Why it matters<\/strong><\/h2>\n