Korea Investment & Securities and OKX Ventures each invested 80 billion won to acquire a 19.6% stake in Coinone

According to CoinDesk, South Korea's major brokerage firm Korea Investment & Securities (KIS) and the investment institution OKX Ventures under the cryptocurrency exchange OKX officially signed an agreement on May 29, with both parties investing 80 billion won (approximately 53 million USD) each to acquire 19.6% of the shares of the South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Coinone (a total of 39.2%). This transaction is still pending approval from regulatory authorities.

It is reported that the total transaction amount of 160 billion won will be conducted through a combination of purchasing existing shares and subscribing to new shares. After the transaction is completed, Coinone's founder and CEO Cha Myunghun will hold 27.8% of the shares, continuing to maintain the status of the largest shareholder and retaining management control; Com2uS Holdings and its affiliates will hold 25%; Korea Investment & Securities and OKX Ventures will jointly become the third-largest shareholders.

Korea Investment & Securities stated that it will rely on this equity cooperation to promote the issuance and distribution of tokenized securities (STO), expand corporate virtual asset investment clients, and develop digital asset businesses such as bulk brokerage. In addition, recently, as South Korean regulatory authorities hinted at relaxing the principle of financial asset separation, several traditional financial giants in South Korea, including Samsung Securities and Hana Bank, have been accelerating their efforts to acquire shares in virtual asset exchanges.