{"id":9025,"date":"2026-05-08T12:14:51","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T12:14:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/9025\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T12:14:51","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T12:14:51","slug":"payday-for-korean-crypto-exchange-cofounders-after-multi-billion-dollar-deal-with-naver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/9025\/","title":{"rendered":"Payday For Korean Crypto Exchange Cofounders After Multi-Billion Dollar Deal With Naver"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kim Hyoung-Nyon (right) and Song Chi-Hyung<\/p>\n

Dunamu<\/p>\n

This story is part of Forbes\u2019 coverage of Korea\u2019s Richest 2026. See the full list here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The cofounders of Dunamu, operator of Upbit, South Korea\u2019s largest cryptocurrency exchange by daily trading volume, got a boost to their wealth after striking a landmark deal with search engine giant Naver, cofounded by billionaire Lee Hae-jin. In November, the company\u2019s payments arm, Naver Financial, agreed to acquire Dunamu<\/a> in a stock swap that values the combined entity at $13.6 billion. Dunamu\u2019s cofounder and chairman, Song Chi-hyung<\/a>, who will have a 19% stake in the merged company, regained his status as a billionaire with a net worth of $2.3 billion. The transaction, which is scheduled to be completed in June, also returned cofounder and vice chairman Kim Hyoung-nyon<\/a> to the ranks of Korea\u2019s richest after a three-year gap with a $1.2 billion fortune derived from his 10% stake in the new entity.<\/p>\n

Dunamu\u2019s valuation, which hit a peak of $17 billion<\/a> during the crypto boom of 2021, when K-pop behemoth Hybe bought a 2.5% stake in the company, nosedived in the ensuing market crash triggered by the bankruptcy of FTX. Investor confidence in the business has since rebounded amid regulatory easing. The merger is poised to create a domestic fintech juggernaut offering a slew of financial services from payments and insurance to crypto and securities trading. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kim Hyoung-Nyon (right) and Song Chi-Hyung Dunamu This story is part of Forbes\u2019 coverage of Korea\u2019s Richest 2026.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9026,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[623],"tags":[6400,5083,6933,31,6076,6931,657,6932,33,2818],"class_list":{"0":"post-9025","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-naver","8":"tag-crypto","9":"tag-dunamu","10":"tag-kim-hyoung-nyon","11":"tag-korea","12":"tag-korea-billionaires","13":"tag-korea-crypto","14":"tag-naver","15":"tag-song-chi-hyung","16":"tag-south-korea","17":"tag-upbit"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9025\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}