Watch Out CZ, Justin Sun: 2025 Put Two New South Korean Crypto Billionaires on the Block

[Ben Graham]

South Korea has quietly produced two new crypto billionaires, putting them in the same league as Changpeng “CZ” Zhao and Justin Sun.

Song Chi-hyung and Kim Hyoung-nyon, the co-founders behind Upbit operator Dunamu Inc., crossed the billionaire mark in 2025 after agreeing to sell their company last week. The buyer is Naver Financial, part of Korean tech giant Naver. The deal is an all-stock transaction worth about 15.13 trillion won, or $10.27Bn.

Naver Corp. agreed to acquire Dunamu Inc., operator of South Korea’s biggest crypto exchange Upbit, in an all-stock deal valued at around $10.3 billionhttps://t.co/kGlATPFz3n

— Sidhartha Shukla (@s1dc01n.bsky.social) (@sidcoins) November 26, 2025

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It is one of Asia’s largest crypto deals this year. And it shows how seriously big tech firms in South Korea now take digital assets and payments.

Under the share swap, Song will hold about 19% of the merged company. That stake is valued at $2.7Bn. Kim will own around 10%, worth roughly $1.4Bn. Those numbers come from company filings that place the combined group at about $13.6Bn.

The deal puts both founders into the top tier of global crypto wealth, a circle long led by exchange heavyweights like Changpeng Zhao of Binance and Justin Sun, who founded Tron.

Zhao’s fortune is now estimated at more than $60Bn. Sun’s wealth is widely placed between $10Bn and $12Bn, supported by public wallet activity and holdings linked to TRX and other digital assets. Song and Kim are not on that scale yet, but the transaction confirms something else. South Korea’s largest exchange has produced a new class of regional crypto power players. 

And it shows that big exchange wealth is no longer limited to the US, Europe, or offshore hubs.

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The all-stock acquisition marks the result of more than a decade of work. The pair launched their company in 2012 as Dunamu after working at payments group Danal. 

They secured early backing from Kakao and local investors, then opened the exchange Upbit in 2017. Its close link to KakaoTalk, the country’s main messaging app, helped drive fast adoption.

That strategy made Upbit South Korea’s biggest crypto exchange. It now handles about 70–72% of all local trading, based on industry estimates.

Data from CoinLaw shows Upbit took around 71.6% of Korea’s crypto volume in the first half of 2025. Average daily trading during that period came in near ₩4.6 trillion, or about $3.4Bn.

Its reach now goes beyond Korea. Upbit controls close to 5% of global spot trading, up from just 1.4% in early 2021. It also serves 5 to 8 million active users, based on compiled market estimates.

In the last 24 hours alone, CoinGecko data shows the exchange handled about $1.7Bn in trades. The most active markets were XRP/KRW, BTC/KRW, and ETH/KRW.

The deal could further tighten South Korea’s already crowded trading market. Even as rival Bithumb cut fees and pushed its share toward 30%, Upbit still held near 70%. 

A combined Naver–Dunamu group would have rare control over pricing, listings, and where everyday traders take their money.

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