South Korean Banks Buy Crypto Exchange Stakes as Bitcoin Slides and Volumes Drop

Bitcoin (BTC) is sliding and retail liquidity is thinning, but some of South Korea’s biggest financial groups are moving in the opposite direction—buying stakes in crypto exchanges. The divergence highlights a widening gap between short-term price action and a longer-term contest for who controls the country’s digital-asset ‘front end’: licenses, distribution rails, and customer access.

BTC fell to around $73,000 as risk sentiment deteriorated, triggering roughly $326.9 million in leveraged liquidations over 24 hours, with about 81.9% of the wiped-out positions on the long side. At the same time, BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF, iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), saw about $528 million in net outflows in a single session, underscoring a broader ‘risk-off’ tone amid geopolitical strain in the Middle East and persistent macro uncertainty. Even President Trump’s pro-crypto remarks failed to steady sentiment, instead serving as a convenient catalyst for profit-taking.

In South Korea’s domestic market, activity has noticeably cooled. Combined trading volume across the country’s five largest crypto exchanges has fallen by roughly 48% from a year earlier, reflecting reduced retail participation and lower speculative churn—conditions that, in a typical market cycle, would discourage new capital from entering the sector.

Yet Korea’s traditional financial incumbents appear to be treating the drawdown as an entry point. Hana Bank is seeking to acquire a 6.55% stake in Dunamu, the operator of Upbit, in a deal valued at about 1 trillion won (roughly $730 million). Less than two weeks later, Hanwha Investment & Securities indicated it would purchase an additional 3.90% stake in Dunamu. In the same month, a Samsung-affiliated group—Samsung Securities, Samsung SDS, and Samsung Card—also disclosed plans to acquire a combined 4.0% stake.

Elsewhere, Mirae Asset Consulting moved earlier in the year, acquiring 92.06% of Korbit, one of South Korea’s longest-running exchanges. Market chatter has also circulated around a potential joint acquisition of Coinone involving Korea Investment & Securities and global exchange OKX, though no formal agreement has been confirmed publicly.

The pattern is less paradoxical than it looks. Retail-led signals—liquidations, ETF flows, and shrinking spot volumes—describe today’s trading cycle. The exchange stake-buying spree, by contrast, is a bet on infrastructure: ownership, regulatory positioning, and distribution capabilities that could define the next stage of Korea’s digital-asset market.

For banks and brokerages, an exchange is not merely a venue for coin trading. It is a gateway into a broader stack of services that institutional players expect to grow as regulation evolves: stablecoins, tokenized securities, custody, and ‘real-world asset’ (RWA) products. Equity exposure offers a way to secure access to a virtual asset service provider framework, liquidity pipes, existing user bases numbering in the millions, and valuable transaction data—assets that are difficult to replicate quickly once market structure hardens.

That is why the deals matter even as prices weaken. The strategic question is not “where is Bitcoin today,” but who will control the customer interface and compliant distribution rails for digital-asset finance over the next decade. In Korea, stablecoin issuance models, tokenized asset rules, and custody standards are still being shaped. Participants that establish themselves before the framework is finalized can influence how the rules are implemented—and potentially set de facto standards through early scale and industry partnerships.

The regulatory race is already visible. While the Bank of Korea has emphasized stablecoin structures led by bank-majority consortia, platform companies and payments players—including Kakao-linked entities, card issuers, and major exchanges such as Dunamu and Bithumb—are exploring their own routes into the ecosystem. The more volatile the market becomes, the faster the scramble to lock in positions during perceived regulatory gaps.

Industry observers note that the market’s center of gravity is shifting from retail speculation toward institutional infrastructure-building, and the change has accelerated over recent months. Retail investors may still focus on charts and near-term volatility, but the competitive battlefield is moving to cap tables and licensing pathways.

Even the conference circuit is reflecting the transition. Organizers of Korea Blockchain Week 2026, scheduled for September, are increasingly filling headline speaking slots with figures from traditional finance rather than predominantly overseas blockchain foundations—an indicator that legacy institutions are preparing to play a more direct role in the next phase of market development.

Bitcoin’s price will continue to react to macro data and geopolitics, but the deeper shift underway in Korea is structural: who owns the exchanges, who holds the licenses, and who controls the customer touchpoints that future digital-asset products will need. In a down market, fear can dominate trading screens. Behind them, capital is positioning for an infrastructure contest that may prove far harder to unwind than any single price cycle.