Overview
- South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission approved the deal on Thursday, July 9, clearing Mirae Asset Consulting’s planned purchase of roughly 92% of Korbit and allowing the transaction to proceed.
- Mirae Asset agreed in February to pay about 133.4–133.5 billion won for the stake, and the regulator emphasized that Korbit accounted for only about 0.5% of local crypto trading volume last year.
- The KFTC said the acquisition is unlikely to substantially reduce competition because Korbit’s small market share and limited trading liquidity mean the combined firm lacks the scale to sway prices or market access today.
- Mirae Asset says it will integrate the exchange with its securities and asset-management businesses and gradually roll out services such as custody, stablecoins, real-world-asset tokenization and related institutional offerings, according to company statements.
- The deal marks the first time an affiliate of a major Korean financial group has moved to buy a won-based crypto exchange and could prompt more institutional entry if Korbit’s liquidity and Korea’s digital-asset rules evolve, so regulators and market watchers will be watching liquidity gains and product rollouts next.