The deal that would merge South Korea’s dominant crypto exchange operator with one of the country’s biggest fintech players just got pushed back. Again.
Naver Financial and Dunamu, the company behind the Upbit exchange, have extended the completion deadline for their stock-swap agreement to December 31, 2026. The culprit this time: concerns about South Korea’s Digital Asset Basic Act, which could impose shareholder stake limits that would fundamentally complicate the merger’s structure.
A deal that keeps sliding
This isn’t the first time the two companies have had to move the goalposts. The original completion target was June 30, which got bumped to September 30 due to regulatory reviews. Now it’s December 31, with the pivotal shareholder meeting rescheduled for November 19.
The deal values Dunamu at approximately 15.1 trillion won, roughly $10B, while Naver Financial carries a valuation of about 4.9 trillion won. The stock-swap ratio sits at approximately 1:2.54, meaning Naver Financial shareholders would receive that proportion of Dunamu shares as the latter becomes a wholly owned subsidiary.
