Samsung Subsidiary Invests $400 Million to Acquire Stake in South Korea's Largest Crypto Exchange

According to The Korea Herald, Samsung Securities, Samsung Card, and Samsung SDS, all Samsung-affiliated companies, have reached an agreement to acquire approximately 4% of the shares in Dunamu, the operator of South Korea's largest cryptocurrency exchange Upbit, for a total of 6,128 billion won (about $408 million). Samsung Securities is to acquire 2% of the shares for 306 billion won, while Samsung Card and Samsung SDS will each acquire 1%. The transaction is expected to be completed on June 19th.

This acquisition involves shares held by Kakao-affiliated parties. It is noteworthy that within less than a month, Kakao has cumulatively sold approximately $1.5 billion worth of Dunamu shares – previously selling 6.55% of shares to South Korea's Hana Bank for about 1 trillion won and selling another batch of shares for 600 billion won to Hanwha Investment & Securities.

The acceleration of cashing out by Kakao is a clear signal of its strategic shift towards AI – the company has listed its self-developed AI model "Kanana" and its collaboration with OpenAI as its core strategy. Cryptocurrency is being replaced by AI in the investment priority list of major technology companies.

Samsung, the largest business group in South Korea, has been continuously cultivating the cryptocurrency field since the launch of its digital asset wallet in 2019. After the announcement, Samsung Securities' share price fell by 2.7%, Samsung SDS fell by 5%, Samsung Card increased by 0.21%, and Kakao fell by 1%.