May 25 – May 31 (Published June 3rd)
PERSPECTIVES by Steve Payne
20 Crypto Private Financings Raised: $156M
Rolling 3-Month-Average: $375M
Rolling 52-Week Average: $401M
Deals Over $50M: 1
In last week’s largest crypto private financing, OKX Ventures and Korea Investment & Securities (KIS) have each agreed to invest KRW 80 billion (~$53 million) for 19.6% stakes in Seoul-based crypto exchange Coinone, with the combined KRW 160 billion (~$106 million) transaction structured as a mix of secondary purchases and newly issued shares. The deal remains subject to regulatory approval. Founder and CEO Cha Myung-hoon retains control with a 27.8% stake post-close, while gaming conglomerate Com2uS Holdings holds 25%.
Founded in 2014, Coinone is one of five Korean exchanges holding a real-name banking agreement – a hard regulatory prerequisite for KRW trading – and is currently partnered with Kakao Bank. Korea’s domestic market remains dominated by Upbit and Bithumb, which together hold roughly 87% market share, with Coinone trailing at around 10%. That puts it in third position domestically – relevant and licensed, but not a volume leader regionally or in the broader East Asian context where Binance, OKX, and Bybit dwarf all Korean platforms.
The combined $106 million for a 39.2% stake implies an enterprise value of roughly $270 million for Coinone. That’s a relatively modest figure against the backdrop of public exchange valuations – Coinbase trades at roughly 7-10x revenue, and Kraken was valued at approximately $9 billion in its 2023 funding round ahead of its IPO push. Bithumb, Coinone’s larger Korean rival, has been the subject of repeated acquisition attempts and was most recently discussed at valuations in the $700 million to $1 billion range. Against those benchmarks, $270 million for a compliant, licensed exchange with a dedicated banking relationship, operating in one of the world’s most active retail crypto markets may have been a pretty good deal – though it reflects the reality that Coinone operates in a structurally capped market where the top two players control nearly nine-tenths of volume.
Regarding strategic focus, Coinone’s stated push into stablecoins and tokenized real-world assets follows a typical script – nearly every exchange of scale has announced similar ambitions over the past 18 months. What’s marginally more interesting here is the KIS co-investment: a major Korean brokerage acquiring an exchange stake alongside a global crypto firm suggests the real opportunity may be distribution into traditional finance clients and institutional on-ramps, where the stablecoin and RWA narrative has more genuine traction.
