Mirae Asset wins antitrust approval for Korbit deal

A Mirae Asset Securities branch in Seoul / Yonhap

Mirae Asset Group said Thursday that its planned acquisition of Korbit, a domestic cryptocurrency exchange, has cleared review by the Fair Trade Commission (FTC).

"The FTC's approval is significant because it marks the first acquisition of a cryptocurrency exchange by an affiliate of a financial group, highlighting the growing convergence between traditional finance and virtual asset platforms," Korbit said in a statement.

Mirae Asset Consulting, an affiliate of the group, said in February it agreed to buy 26.91 million shares in Korbit, equivalent to a 92.06 percent stake, for 133.5 billion won ($88.82 million). Follow-up procedures to complete the acquisition will proceed in stages, though the timeline has yet to be finalized, the exchange said.

Digital finance is one of the group's key mid- to long-term growth drivers. In June, it launched its global investment platform Mirae Asset Portfolio Service (MAPS) in Hong Kong, laying the groundwork to integrate traditional and digital assets.

Mirae Asset said it aims to combine its global investment expertise in securities and asset management with Korbit's digital-asset infrastructure.

With Korbit, Mirae Asset plans to gradually introduce a range of digital financial services, including stablecoins, custody, real-world assets, digital payments and storage services, in response to evolving regulations. The group also plans to offer comprehensive services for institutional and corporate clients, including research, custody, security and asset management support.

"Digital assets are no longer a short-term investment vehicle for certain investors, but a new asset class in the global financial industry," a Mirae Asset official said. "We aim to help set a new standard for global asset markets and contribute to the development of Korea's digital asset industry into a trusted ecosystem."

Mirae Asset said customer asset protection and market trust will be top priorities. The group plans to apply financial institution-level internal controls, risk management and security systems to Korbit to strengthen transaction stability and investor protection.

Analysts say the deal is less about challenging Upbit and Bithumb in the retail market than about giving Mirae Asset a regulated channel into digital assets.

"With Upbit and Bithumb controlling 69 percent and 28 percent of the retail market, respectively, Korbit's 0.5 percent share makes it uneconomical to compete for short-term traders through marketing campaigns or fee waivers," said Ryan Yoon, a senior research analyst at Tiger Research.

"Mirae Asset is likely to embed Korbit's trading function into the Mirae Asset Securities' mobile trading system, creating a channel to capture long-term bitcoin buying and custody demand from conservative wealth management clients," he added.

Competition to acquire stakes in cryptocurrency exchanges has been intensifying.

Last November, Naver's subsidiary Naver Financial agreed to acquire Dunamu as a wholly owned subsidiary through a share-swap deal. The deal is currently under review by the FTC. In June, Korea Investment & Securities acquired a 20 percent stake in Coinone, while global crypto exchange OKX separately bought another 20 percent.