Korbit, South Korea’s first cryptocurrency exchange, has officially joined the Mirae Asset Group family, marking the first time a major traditional Korean financial group affiliate has taken a controlling stake in a domestic crypto platform.
Established in 2013, Korbit was the country’s first locally founded digital asset exchange and has now come under the ownership of one of South Korea’s largest financial groups.
The exchange confirmed on Thursday that it has become part of Mirae Asset Group, which reportedly oversaw approximately $1 trillion in assets under management as of May.
The acquisition was carried out by Mirae Asset Consulting, an affiliate of Mirae Asset Group, which acquired Korbit shares through required regulatory disclosure processes and became the exchange’s largest shareholder. Korbit stated that the operating company, Korbit Co., Ltd., will continue running the platform with no changes to its corporate structure.
Mirae Asset Consulting, which also manages some of the group’s non-financial businesses, including hotels and golf facilities, now reportedly controls a 97.15% stake in Korbit.
For Korbit users, the transition is expected to be seamless. The exchange said services such as account logins, cryptocurrency trading, deposits, and withdrawals will continue as usual. Customer funds and digital assets will remain segregated from company holdings under South Korea’s Act on the Protection of Virtual Asset Users. The platform also confirmed that its personal data policies remain unchanged, meaning users do not need to take any action.
The acquisition underscores the increasing involvement of traditional financial institutions in the crypto sector as they look to strengthen their digital asset strategies. In South Korea, where retail crypto trading activity regularly competes with stock market participation, owning a regulated exchange provides significant strategic value.
The move follows a broader trend across Asia, where established financial groups are expanding into cryptocurrency markets. Japan’s SBI Group, for example, has pursued crypto-sector growth through its planned acquisition of Tokyo-based exchange Bitbank for $289 million and its investment in Singapore-based platform Coinhako.
Korbit’s acquisition reflects the growing integration between traditional finance and digital asset businesses, as major financial institutions seek entry points into the expanding crypto economy.
