The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) has approved Mirae Asset Consulting's acquisition of Korbit, a cryptocurrency trading brokerage, the regulator said on the 9th.
With the approval, Mirae Asset Consulting will acquire 92.06% of Korbit's shares for approximately 133.4 billion won.
Mirae Asset Consulting, an affiliate of the Mirae Asset business group, is a non-financial affiliate that generates most of its revenue from hotel operations. Mirae Asset's financial affiliates include Mirae Asset Securities and Mirae Asset Global Investments.
Korbit is a cryptocurrency exchange that supports won-denominated trading. Under the Act on Reporting and Using Specified Financial Transaction Information, only five domestic cryptocurrency exchanges support won trading: Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, GOPAX, and Korbit.
Among these, Korbit ranked fourth with a 0.5% share based on cryptocurrency trading volume last year.
The FTC determined that Korbit's market share is negligible, so even if Mirae Asset Consulting purchases Korbit's stake, the likelihood of restricting market competition is not significant.
Through this combination, Mirae Asset can leverage its financial affiliates to launch a single platform integrating a listed stock investment platform and a cryptocurrency exchange. It also opens the possibility of launching exchange-traded funds (ETFs) based on cryptocurrency in the future.
