Mirae Asset Group has opened talks to buy crypto exchange Korbit, as traditional finance keeps circling licensed crypto infrastructure.
The discussions run through Mirae Asset Consulting, a non-financial affiliate of the group, which has signed a memorandum of understanding with Korbit’s major shareholders, according to South Korean media reports.
Korbit is primarily owned by NXC, the holding company behind gaming giant Nexon, which controls about 60.5% of the exchange. SK Planet holds another 31.5%, reports said.
The price tag under discussion sits in a range of 100B won to 140B won ($70M to $100M), a level that would mark a rare large-scale entry into Korea’s exchange market by a mainstream financial group.
Banking Links And Licenses Outweigh Market Share
Korbit helped pioneer Korea’s crypto scene, launching in 2013 and debuting what it billed as the first Bitcoin-to-won trading market. Today, it operates in a far more concentrated arena where Upbit dominates daily volumes.
CoinGecko data shows Upbit taking 64.2% of local trading in a recent 24-hour window, followed by Bithumb at 24.4% and Coinone at 10.8%, leaving Korbit at about 0.5%.
That small share still comes with a valuable prize, a regulated onshore venue with banking links, compliance controls, and a customer base that can be cross-sold into broader financial products, especially if institutions get a clearer path into spot crypto trading.
Institutional Interest Grows As Stakes Rise
Mirae’s interest comes as competition for regulated Korean exchange licenses intensifies. As of November, crypto exchange Bybit had also been in talks to acquire Korbit, according to South Korea’s Maeil Business Newspaper.
The talks land as South Korea’s tech and finance giants chase scale in digital assets. Naver Financial has agreed to acquire Dunamu, the operator of market-leading Upbit, in an all stock deal valued at about 15.13T won, Reuters reported in late November.
For Korbit, a buyer with Mirae’s brand and distribution could reset the exchange’s relevance at home, even as competition stays brutal and liquidity continues to pool around the biggest venues.
Neither Mirae nor Korbit has confirmed terms publicly, and the talks could still change or fall apart as due diligence progresses.
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