OKX Eyes A 20% Stake In South Korean Exchange — Here’s What It Signals For The Region

Global crypto exchange OKX is in discussions to acquire approximately a 20% stake in Coinone, one of South Korea’s five licensed crypto exchanges, according to a May 15 report by Yonhap News Agency — a move that would mark OKX’s most significant strategic foothold in one of Asia’s most active digital asset markets.

Korea Investment & Securities, one of South Korea’s major brokerage firms, is reportedly pursuing a parallel 20% stake in Coinone under the same framework, per the Yonhap report as cited by Bloomberg’s Bloomingbit. The two parties are said to be in active discussions, with no deal terms formally confirmed.

Coinone’s largest shareholder is The One Group at 34.30%, followed by gaming company Com2uS Holdings at 21.95%, CEO Cha Myung-hoon at 19.14%, and Com2uS Plus at 16.47%, per the Bloomingbit report. Cha, who founded Coinone, is also the largest shareholder of The One Group.

The Regulatory Opening Behind The Move

The reported discussions arrive at a precise moment in South Korea’s rapidly shifting crypto ownership landscape. The country’s Financial Services Commission (FSC) proposed in late December 2025 that major shareholders of domestic crypto exchanges be capped at 15–20% ownership — a regulatory framework explicitly designed to bring securities firms and institutional asset managers into the exchange ownership structure for the first time.

That opening is now being acted on at speed. Earlier deals in the same wave include Mirae Asset Consulting’s approximately $96.7 million purchase of a 92.06% stake in Korbit and Hana Financial Group’s roughly $727 million acquisition of a 6.55% stake in Dunamu — the parent company of Upbit, South Korea’s dominant exchange — per Bloomingbit’s market overview.

OKX’s Broader Expansion Play

For OKX, the Coinone discussions fit a pattern of accelerating global institutional positioning. In March 2026, Intercontinental Exchange — the NYSE’s parent company — invested approximately $200 million in OKX at a $25 billion valuation and secured a board seat, per Bloomberg’s reporting at the time. The deal included a commitment for OKX users to eventually gain access to tokenized NYSE-listed stocks and derivatives.

A regulated stake in Coinone would extend that institutional architecture into South Korea — a market where approximately 30% of the population, or roughly 15.5 million people, held digital assets as of 2025, per industry data.

For a global exchange that currently lacks Korean Won support and operates in the country without a domestic license, a minority stake in a licensed local venue represents a structurally different form of market access than organic growth alone could deliver.

This development marks a pivotal juncture for the nascent sector’s consolidation phase in Asia. As South Korea’s regulatory framework actively reshapes who can own its exchanges, global players with institutional backing are moving quickly to secure positions before the ownership landscape settles — and OKX appears determined not to be left outside looking in.

As of this writing, Bitcoin trades at around $80,000, consolidating near its 200-day moving average as the broader market awaits the next macro catalyst.

Cover image from ChatGPT, BTCUSD chart from Tradingview