Samsung Buys $408M Stake in South Korea's Biggest Crypto…

Three Samsung affiliates — Samsung Securities, Samsung Card, and Samsung SDS — have agreed to acquire a combined 4% stake in Dunamu, the operator of South Korea's largest cryptocurrency exchange Upbit, for 612.8 billion won ($408 million). Samsung Securities takes the largest slice at 2%, with the other two units each picking up 1%. The deals are scheduled to close on June 19.

The transaction is part of a broader Kakao divestiture that has now totalled roughly $1.5 billion in Dunamu equity sold in under a month. Kakao previously offloaded a 6.55% stake to Hana Bank for around 1 trillion won, followed by a 600 billion won sale to Hanwha Investment and Securities. The exits reflect a strategic pivot by Kakao toward AI — specifically its "Kanana" model suite and an OpenAI partnership — as crypto takes a back seat in major Korean tech companies' capital allocation.