OKX and Korea Investment will each buy a 20% stake in Coinone, giving the South Korean crypto exchange new backers.
Coinone, a South Korean crypto exchange, is bringing in two large outside investors narrowing the country’s gap between crypto and traditional finance.
Korea Investment & Securities, a Seoul-based brokerage and investment bank, and OKX Ventures, the investment arm of global crypto exchange OKX, will each acquire a 20% stake in Coinone, The Korea Herald reported on May 29.
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The deal will use a mix of newly issued shares and existing shares sold by Coinone CEO Cha Myung-hoon and Com2uS Holdings, the Korean gaming company that has been one of Coinone’s largest shareholders, the report reads.
After the transaction, Cha will remain Coinone’s largest shareholder with around 30%, followed by Com2uS Holdings with about 24.5%. Korea Investment & Securities and OKX Ventures will become joint third-largest shareholders with 20% each, per the report.
Security Remains Part of the Backdrop
Furthermore, the investment coincides with Coinone receiving reprieve from its regulatory sanction.
In mid-April, South Korea’s Financial Intelligence Unit fined Coinone $3.5 million and imposed a three-month partial business suspension over failure to KYC user identities in roughly 70,000 cases.
But amid the investments, the Seoul Administrative Court paused the suspension while the case is reviewed, saying the exchange could face hard-to-repair damage if the penalty remained in force.
Coinone is one of South Korea’s main won-based crypto exchanges. Data from CoinGecko shows the exchange ranks third among South Korea’s five won-based crypto exchanges by market share, behind Upbit and Bithumb, holding about 6.6% of the domestic market.
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