Coinone, Korea Investment, OKX and Com2uS aim for 'quantum jump' in digital finance

Joint briefing by Coinone, Korea Investment Securities, OKX and Com2uS Holdings

Korea Investment to contribute compliance expertise, OKX global technology

Com2uS to add content and IP in push toward digital finance platform

From left: Kim Sung-hwan, president of Korea Investment Securities; Song Byung-jun, chairman of Com2uS Holdings; Star Xu, founder and CEO of OKX; and Cha Myung-hun, CEO of Coinone, at a joint press briefing held Thursday at Coinone's headquarters in Yeouido, Seoul. [Photo by Yoo Dong-hyun]

Digital asset exchange Coinone has unveiled ambitions for a "quantum jump" into a full-scale digital finance platform, joining forces with Korea Investment Securities, global exchange OKX and Com2uS Holdings. Through the four-way alliance, Coinone plans to build a transparent governance structure and pursue synergies by combining Korea Investment's compliance expertise, OKX's technology and Com2uS Holdings' content and intellectual property.

Coinone CEO Cha Myung-hun, Korea Investment Securities President Kim Sung-hwan, OKX founder and CEO Star Xu, and Com2uS Holdings Chairman Song Byung-jun laid out the vision Thursday at a joint press briefing at Coinone's headquarters in Yeouido, Seoul.

"In the short term, we will expand our leadership across the domestic virtual asset market on all fronts," Cha said, adding that the company intends to launch innovative digital financial products including security token offerings and stablecoins and grow into a global comprehensive platform used worldwide. He said the four partners each bring distinct strengths: Korea Investment Securities will provide unrivaled compliance know-how from traditional finance to sharpen Coinone's risk management; Com2uS Holdings will lower barriers to investment through strong content and IT infrastructure, making Coinone a more engaging exchange; and OKX will transfer its trading and technology infrastructure along with next-generation wallet technology to Coinone.

Cha said he had been thinking deeply since late last year about how to grow Coinone, developing various strategies including strengthening the internal organization and adopting AI. "Among those ideas, I began thinking it would be great to bring in strong shareholders and receive their support," he said. "My ideal structure was to attract investment from a major securities firm and a global top-tier exchange and get technical assistance — and now that it has actually come together, I feel both dazed and amazed."

Korea Investment Securities, which acquired a roughly 20 percent stake in Coinone, described the investment as strategic rather than a simple financial one. "We did not participate as a financial investor but as a strategic investor," Kim said. "Korea Investment wanted to be a strategic investor serving as a hub connecting regulated finance with the virtual asset market." He added that the firm expects legislation covering security tokens and stablecoins to accelerate, and said the decision to acquire the stake was made to enter new blockchain-based digital finance businesses and secure a foothold as a regulated financial institution.

Asked why Coinone was chosen over the other four major won-denominated exchanges, Kim said the firm looked beyond simple market share or leading position. "We placed high value on the potential to grow Coinone together and on its security record — not a single incident has occurred to date," he said.

Kim also said a dramatic leap in Coinone's growth is a plausible scenario as virtual assets become further integrated into the regulated financial system. "People tend to think of virtual assets only in terms of coin brokerage market share, but in capital markets there have been many cases of companies jumping up through various licenses," he said. "I believe Coinone can achieve a similar jump not by prioritizing simple coin trading fees and transaction market share, but when deregulation and compliance frameworks come into play."

Star Xu, founder of OKX — one of the world's top exchanges — said the company will transfer its technological capabilities to Coinone and support its growth as a long-term partner. "We hope to pass on 13 years of operational technology and know-how so that we can offer products with lower risk," Xu said. He said OKX was the only exchange whose system servers did not go down when bitcoin fell sharply in October last year, calling that resilience "the essence of our product engineering." He said the ultimate goal of the collaboration is to provide better products and services so that users experience no disruptions, and added that the partnership will seek synergies across all areas including technology, security and risk management.

Com2uS Holdings, previously the second-largest shareholder, said it made a bold decision to sell down part of its existing stake to enable Coinone's quantum jump. "To respond swiftly and thoroughly to a rapidly changing digital market and a new regulatory environment, Coinone and Com2uS Holdings made the decision to redesign Coinone's shareholder structure, accepting a dilution of our respective stakes," Chairman Song said. He said the company will work from multiple angles to collaborate with Korea Investment Securities, which brings institutional credibility as a dominant force in traditional finance, and with OKX, which connects global digital asset market infrastructure and networks. Com2uS Holdings CEO Jeong Cheol-ho added that the company's content and IP assets, proven to hundreds of millions of users on the global stage, will also be leveraged in a variety of ways.

The four companies said they expect strong synergies from combining businesses in distinct, non-overlapping sectors — a domestic exchange, a securities firm, an overseas exchange and a gaming company. "What is important about the restructured ownership is that the four parties do not overlap in their domains," Cha said. "Because each shareholder's role is clearly defined and there is no risk of encroaching on one another's territory, all four can concentrate their full capabilities on the single goal of growing Coinone." He added that as virtual assets settle into the regulated industry, exchanges are increasingly called upon to fulfill social responsibilities. "By having a transparent ownership structure where governance can serve the public interest, I believe we can also make a significant contribution to social responsibility," he said.

Korea Investment Securities and OKX Ventures, the investment arm of OKX, signed a strategic equity investment agreement on May 29 and each acquired approximately 20 percent of Coinone. The two firms became joint third-largest shareholders in Coinone, behind CEO Cha Myung-hun, who holds 30.36 percent, and Com2uS Holdings, which holds 24.54 percent.

dingdong@heraldcorp.com