Upbit Profit Crashes 85% Months After Korean Giants Paid $1.5 Billion to Buy In
Upbit revenue collapsed within the second quarter. Operator Dunamu posted an 85% drop in working revenue as buying and selling charges dried up at South Korea’s largest crypto change.
The submitting landed three months after Samsung, Hana Bank and Hanwha spent about $1.5 billion shopping for into the corporate. Together they now maintain shut to a fifth of it.
Upbit Profit Margins Fall From 88% to 14%
Dunamu filed its half yr report with South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service on Friday. Quarterly working revenue got here to 23.5 billion gained, roughly $17 million. A yr earlier the determine was $108 million.
Revenue alone doesn’t clarify it. Second quarter income fell 39%. Operating prices went the opposite method and rose 13%.
The squeeze exhibits up within the margin. Back in 2021, Dunamu turned 88 gained of each 100 gained of income into working revenue. Last quarter it stored 14.
Fees did the injury. Commission earnings from the Upbit buying and selling platform dropped 49.8% within the first half to 395.5 billion gained, close to $279 million. That single line accounts for 97% of all the things Dunamu earns.
The complete market shrank with it. Volume throughout Korea’s 5 licensed gained exchanges fell 49.5% within the second quarter to $146.4 billion, in accordance to CoinGecko data.
A 22% tax on crypto beneficial properties then arrives in January 2027, one cause Korea’s shrinking trading volume could not bounce again quick. Upbit has in the meantime stored pruning its board, eradicating three altcoins in September.
The Price Nobody Has Moved
Here is the awkward half. Samsung associates, Hana Bank and Hanwha Investment Securities every paid 439,252 gained a share once they bought into Dunamu in May, or about $310. That valued the corporate close to 15.3 trillion gained.
Dunamu’s pending merger with Naver Financial nonetheless makes use of the identical quantity. The share swap costs Dunamu at 439,252 gained, unchanged for the reason that deal was signed in November 2025.
So the value has not moved. The enterprise below it has.
Shareholders vote on the all inventory deal on November 19. The date has slipped twice whereas Korea’s Fair Trade Commission opinions the tie up. Completion is now set for December 31.
Dunamu blamed thinner liquidity throughout world digital asset markets, and the weaker investor urge for food that adopted.
The firm additionally mentioned it follows the Virtual Asset User Protection Act to the letter. That regulation has ruled Korean exchanges since July 2024. Dunamu says it’s upgrading inside methods to stamp out unfair buying and selling.
For the establishments that purchased in, one query now sits in plain view. They paid a value set earlier than this collapse reached the accounts. In November, they vote on whether or not it nonetheless holds.
The put up Upbit Profit Crashes 85% Months After Korean Giants Paid $1.5 Billion to Buy In appeared first on BeInCrypto.
