[DigitalToday reporter Oh Sang-yup (오상엽)] South Korea's Fair Trade Commission approved Mirae Asset Consulting's acquisition of digital asset exchange Korbit. It is the first case of a financial group affiliate acquiring a domestic won-based exchange, and the trend toward combining traditional finance and digital asset exchanges is expected to gather pace.

The commission said on July 9 it had approved Mirae Asset Consulting's acquisition of Korbit. Mirae Asset Consulting will acquire 92.06 percent of Korbit shares for about 133.4 billion won.

Mirae Asset Consulting is an affiliate of the Mirae Asset business group. It is a non-financial affiliate whose revenue mostly comes from hotel operations. Mirae Asset's financial affiliates include Mirae Asset Securities and Mirae Asset Management, among others.

Korbit is a domestic digital asset exchange where won trading is available. Under the Specific Financial Information Act, there are 5 domestic digital asset exchanges where won trading is available: Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Gopax and Korbit.

The commission judged that the merger was unlikely to restrict market competition because Korbit's market share is low. Korbit ranked fourth last year with a 0.5 percent share based on digital asset trading volume.

With the deal, Mirae Asset can use its financial affiliates to launch a single platform integrating a listed-stock investment platform and a digital asset exchange. The possibility of launching exchange-traded funds based on digital assets has also been mentioned.

The commission said such a combination would require Korbit to secure sufficient liquidity for it to lead to the exclusion of competitors in the securities business or asset management market.

Given Korbit's current market share and the domestic exchange market's user concentration structure, it judged the likelihood of anti-competitive effects was low.

The commission explained the merger as the first case of a financial group affiliate acquiring a digital asset exchange in the trend toward the convergence of traditional finance and digital asset exchanges.

The commission said, "We hope competition in the digital asset market will be invigorated through a reshaping of the digital finance market and service innovation."