News linked to both this project and an event.
According to Yonhap News, Samsung SDS announced a strategic partnership with South Korean blockchain company Dunamu (which operates the crypto exchange Upbit). Both parties are discussing specific details regarding multiple digital asset collaboration plans, including stablecoin infrastructure, virtual asset financial system integration (SI), and AI-driven next-generation payment businesses. Samsung SDS stated that this equity investment in Dunamu is not merely a financial investment, but a strategic move to enter the digital financial infrastructure sector, combining Dunamu's blockchain operational experience with Samsung SDS's capabilities in IT services, AI, cloud, and security.
Ethereum Layer 2 infrastructure Optimism has officially announced a tripartite strategic collaboration, joining forces with Upbit operator Dunamu, fintech platform Toss, and DB Securities to comprehensively expand into the Korean market. On the cooperation front with Dunamu, both parties will upgrade the GIWA public chain based on the OP Stack and promote its global development. A three-month technical verification will be conducted with Toss to build a compliant Korean won digital financial infrastructure. Optimism and DB Securities are focusing on the STO and RWA sectors, planning to transform Jeju Island's smart agriculture, livestock assets, and Korean intellectual property into tokenized securities and real-world asset products. This will facilitate the phased on-chain commercialization of local physical assets, with the entire cooperation framework tailored to align with Korea's financial regulatory framework.
According to EToday, South Korea's top five virtual asset exchanges (Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit, Gopax) added only 117 new trading listings in the first half of the year, a 44% decrease from 210 in the same period last year; the net increase plummeted from 191 to 49, a year-on-year decline of 74%. Meanwhile, the number of delistings surged from 19 to 68, an increase of 258%. Global virtual asset trading volume recorded $46.07 billion in June, down 34% from $70 billion in the same period last year. The shrinkage in trading volume directly compressed fee income; Dunamu (Upbit's parent company) and Bithumb's first-quarter fee income accounted for 97.49% and 99.99% of operating revenue respectively, highlighting the issue of high dependency on retail spot trading.
Open Standard, the consortium behind Open USD, has been accused of listing companies such as Samsung Electronics as supporters of the OUSD stablecoin project without their consent.Tony Chung, Head of Blockmedia’s BD division, stated that Samsung Electronics said no formal discussions had taken place and that it was unclear what role it would play in the project.Shinhan, Dunamu, and K Bank stated that Open Standard had inquired about their interest in participating, and they merely indicated they would "consider" it, only to later find their names listed as consortium members.Tether advisor Gabor Gurbacs noted that some of the listed partners claimed they had never signed or agreed to anything.Circle co-founder and CEO Jeremy Allaire commented, "Integrity matters." OUSD is expected to launch later this year. (Bitcoin.com News).
Open Standard announced the launch of the USD stablecoin Open USD (OUSD) and plans to go live within the year, stating that over 140 financial and payment-related institutions are participating, including Visa, Mastercard, BlackRock, Samsung Electronics, Dunamu, Hanwha, and others. However, several South Korean companies stated that they had not previously conducted formal negotiations with the issuer; some institutions only responded that they could evaluate after the project matures, but were subsequently listed as alliance members.
Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire stated that Circle has expanded its collaboration with Dunamu—the operator of Upbit—to support the compliant adoption of digital assets, and broadened its partnership with Bithumb to strengthen stablecoin infrastructure and raise market awareness of stablecoins. Allaire noted that South Korea is rapidly advancing regulation for stablecoins and digital assets, and that local cryptocurrency adoption rates are high. During his time in Seoul, he also met with representatives from KakaoGroup, Coinone, Hashed, Shinhan Bank, KB Financial Group, and Woori Bank.
According to The Asia Business Daily, DS Investment & Securities issued a research report lowering NAVER’s target price from its previous level to 300,000 KRW, while maintaining a “Buy” rating. Analyst Choi Seung-ho noted that the downward revision is primarily driven by two factors: first, NAVER’s operating profit margin for this year is projected to decline from 18.3% to 17.6%, due to rising advertising and e-commerce marketing expenses as well as depreciation costs; second, delayed legislative progress on cryptocurrency-related regulations is directly affecting the proposed merger between NAVER Financial and Dunamu, raising the possibility of further postponement beyond the originally scheduled completion in September. Previously, DS Securities had assigned a valuation of 15 trillion KRW to NAVER’s cryptocurrency business within its Sum-of-the-Parts (SOTP) valuation; this portion has now been removed from the updated report. Choi Seung-ho added that the e-commerce business remains NAVER’s core growth engine going forward, with annual e-commerce sales expected to reach approximately 2.7 trillion KRW.