As the opening of the corporate digital-asset market becomes more visible, cooperation between local exchanges and the financial sector is being rapidly reshaped. The relationship is evolving from dependent tie-ups for issuing real-name accounts into horizontal alliances that share wealth management, FX remittance and custody infrastructure.

◆From securing accounts to infrastructure integration, from M&A to wealth management

The digital-asset industry said Mirae Asset Group has recently been pursuing an acquisition of management control of Korbit, a local won-market exchange, through its affiliate Mirae Asset Consulting. The two sides signed a memorandum of understanding and are conducting due diligence and talks on the current shareholding structure and acquisition terms, it is known. The industry sees that if the deal is completed it could be classified as a group-level strategic investment, raising the likelihood that related procedures would follow.

Mirae Asset’s push to acquire Korbit is interpreted as an attempt to bring a digital-asset exchange under its wing by putting a non-financial affiliate at the forefront under the government’s principle of separating finance and virtual assets. It is a strategic move to go beyond a simple partnership and combine a financial firm’s credibility and capital strength with an exchange’s technology and operational capabilities to take the lead in next-generation markets such as corporate trading, custody and security tokens.

This move also aligns with the group’s mid- to long-term strategy. Mirae Asset has presented its “Mirae Asset 3.0” strategy, after 1.0 centered on fund sales and 2.0 focused on expanding global and ETFs, positioning digital assets as a new growth axis. As part of that, Mirae Asset Securities is developing a global digital wallet to hold digital assets and is moving step by step to bring digital assets into existing financial infrastructure.

Bithumb has joined hands with Korea Investment & Securities. The two companies agreed to jointly develop wealth management services linked to a global wealth management organisation dedicated to ultra-high-net-worth clients. They plan to incorporate digital assets into corporates’ financial assets or wealthy clients’ portfolios and provide specialised financial solutions such as tax and gifting services.

Dunamu, which operates Upbit, has begun innovating FX remittance infrastructure with Hana Financial Group. The plan is to combine Dunamu’s blockchain technology and Hana Bank’s global network to build a stablecoin-based real-time overseas remittance system. This is seen as digital assets being integrated into the financial sector as payment and remittance infrastructure beyond a simple investment target.

◆The 'BlackRock-Coinbase' role model

The digital-asset industry expects the sector to evolve toward integrating digital assets into existing financial infrastructure in line with global institutional market standards. One industry official said, “In the global institutional investment market, digital assets are not separated into a different area,” and added, “Cooperation between domestic exchanges and financial firms will ultimately have to go in this direction.”

A leading example cited is cooperation between BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, and Coinbase. BlackRock in 2022 linked Coinbase’s institutional platform, Coinbase Prime, to its investment management platform Aladdin. It is a model that manages traditional assets and digital assets on a single portfolio management screen, and the domestic digital-asset and securities industries are also paying attention.

A similar trend has emerged in the banking sector. Zodia Custody, launched as a joint venture between Standard Chartered and Northern Trust, later added SBI Holdings, National Australia Bank and Emirates NBD as shareholders, building a bank consortium-style digital-asset custody model.

There are also cases in which financial firms have internalised digital-asset infrastructure directly. Deutsche Boerse Group in 2021 acquired a majority stake in Crypto Finance, a digital-asset trading and custody company, bringing the business into the group’s core portfolio. In Asia, DBS, Singapore’s largest bank, launched DBS Digital Exchange in 2020 and is directly providing digital-asset trading, custody and tokenisation services to institutions and corporates.

◆Groundwork for opening the corporate market

The view is growing that such tie-ups and reshuffles will accelerate in tandem with the Financial Services Commission’s roadmap for opening the corporate virtual-asset market. The FSC initially pushed to allow real-name accounts for listed companies and professional investors in the second half of 2025. But after coordinating stakeholder views, it is aiming to disclose the related policy direction in the first quarter of 2026.

The industry is paying attention to the rapid incorporation of virtual assets into the institutional framework in global markets. It is a trend in which inflows of institutional money are becoming full-fledged.

For securities firms and asset managers, opportunities grow as so-called “new finance” areas such as tokenised securities expand. That is because the different structure from existing markets, such as 24-hour trading, can pull in greater liquidity. The analysis is that incentives will inevitably increase to secure an early lead in the corporate and institutional market by combining with exchanges.

A digital-asset industry official said, “If a model with a high share of institutions and corporates like Coinbase becomes a reality, there is significant room for profitability to improve,” and added, “In South Korea, securities firms seeking to pre-empt corporate clients are actively moving to utilise exchanges in advance.” The official added, “Ultimately, cooperation with strong traditional financial players that have the ability to communicate with regulators and have capital strength will also become a decisive battleground for exchanges.”