[DigitalToday reporter Sangyeop Oh] Korbit, which has come under the umbrella of Mirae Asset Group, has rolled out a card to make trading fees free for 1 year. It may be difficult to shake up the duopoly of Upbit and Bithumb immediately, but it is expected to be a variable in the battle for third place with Coinone.

DigitalX, the operator of Korbit, made trading fees free across all assets in its won market from 9 a.m. on Aug. 24, 2026 to 9 a.m. on Aug. 24, 2027. DigitalX CEO Se-jin Oh (오세진) said, "Based on a customer alliance with Mirae Asset Group, we will build differentiated competitiveness."

The move is a strategy to raise trading volume and liquidity at the same time. Exchanges with low volume do not have enough buy and sell orders, making it difficult to trade at desired prices. If removing fees draws users in, orders can increase and the trading environment may also improve.

A sharp contraction in domestic digital-asset trading is also cited as a backdrop to the free-fee move. According to CoinGecko, average daily trading value at South Korea's five major won-based exchanges, including Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit and Gopax, was tallied at $466.69 million (about 669.0 billion won) in July. That was down 80.3 percent from $2.37173 billion (about 3.4 trillion won) in January.

As of 9 a.m. on Aug. 24, market share by exchange was 73.27 percent for Upbit, 24.30 percent for Bithumb, 2.16 percent for Coinone, 0.24 percent for Korbit and 0.03 percent for Gopax. With Upbit and Bithumb together accounting for 97.57 percent, Korbit is in a situation where it is not easy to disrupt the top-two structure in a short period of time.

Korbit's first goal is to overtake Coinone and become South Korea's third-largest exchange. Earlier this year, Korbit engaged in a USDC zero-fee and rewards battle around a similar time to Coinone and at one point rose to third place ahead of Coinone, but its share fell again as event-driven trading declined.

Bithumb also made trading fees free across all assets in October 2023 and then lifted its market share from below 10 percent to the 40 percent range. It once recorded a 51 percent share, even surpassing Upbit. After the free-fee period ended, it maintained a higher share in the high-20 percent range than before, but the profitability burden also grew as it gave up fees.

Other major exchanges are understood to have no plans to follow Korbit by making fees free across all won-market assets. Instead, they are eliminating fees for some assets or offering trading rewards.

An industry official said, "Domestic exchanges, whose main source of income is trading fees, have been in a situation where it is burdensome to invest large-scale costs because business conditions have not been good." The official added, "As the first case in which a domestic financial group secured management rights of a won-based exchange and began injecting funds in earnest, attention is focused on this move."

The exchange expected to be most directly affected is Coinone, the industry's No. 3. That is because it is a position Korbit can realistically target immediately. Still, there are also expectations that Korbit's expanded market entry could raise interest in small and mid-sized exchanges and lift overall trading volume at the same time.

Another industry official said, "Coinone and Korbit's market shares can change in an instant depending on certain assets and events, so Coinone is in the most sensitive position." The official added, "Conversely, if Mirae Asset's investment enlarges the overall market pie, positive effects could also appear for small and mid-sized exchanges, including Coinone."

What makes Korbit's latest free-fee move different from past events is that the applied period spans 1 year and is backed by Mirae Asset's funding injection.

DigitalX held a board meeting on Aug. 12 and resolved a third-party allocated paid-in capital increase worth about 50.0 billion won. Mirae Asset Consulting holds a 97.15 percent stake in DigitalX on a pre-capital-increase basis.

Mirae Asset plans to foster Korbit not as a simple digital-asset exchange but as a platform linking traditional assets and digital assets. In line with institutional improvements, it plans to expand its business areas to include stablecoins and custody, real-world assets (RWA), security token offerings (STO), and digital payments and storage.

An industry official said, "Making fees free can become an opportunity for users to try using Korbit." The official added, "To change the market landscape, it must increase liquidity and product competitiveness and show concrete linked services with Mirae Asset customers."