{"id":61596,"date":"2025-12-03T06:31:46","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T06:31:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=61596"},"modified":"2025-12-03T06:31:46","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T06:31:46","slug":"watch-out-cz-justin-sun-2025-put-two-new-south-korean-crypto-billionaires-on-the-block","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=61596","title":{"rendered":"Watch Out CZ, Justin Sun: 2025 Put Two New South Korean Crypto Billionaires on the Block"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">South Korea has quietly produced two new crypto billionaires, putting them in the same league as Changpeng \u201cCZ\u201d Zhao and Justin Sun.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Song Chi-hyung and Kim Hyoung-nyon, the co-founders behind Upbit operator Dunamu Inc., <\/span><a class=\"general-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/asia-pacific\/navers-payment-arm-acquire-south-korean-crypto-exchange-operator-10-bln-deal-2025-11-27\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">crossed<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> the billionaire mark in 2025 after agreeing to sell their company last week. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">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.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Naver Corp. agreed to acquire Dunamu Inc., operator of South Korea\u2019s biggest crypto exchange Upbit, in an all-stock deal valued at around $10.3 billion<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/kGlATPFz3n\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/t.co\/kGlATPFz3n<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Sidhartha Shukla (@s1dc01n.bsky.social) (@sidcoins) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/sidcoins\/status\/1993645046537814452?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">November 26, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><b>DISCOVER:<\/b><a class=\"general-link\" href=\"https:\/\/99bitcoins.com\/cryptocurrency\/next-1000x-crypto\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener sponsored\"> <b>Next 1000X Crypto \u2013 Here\u2019s 10+ Crypto Tokens That Can Hit 1000x This Year<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n<h2><b>Where Do Song and Kim Rank Among Global Crypto Founders?<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It is one of Asia\u2019s largest crypto deals this year. And it shows how seriously big tech firms in South Korea now take digital assets and payments.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">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.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Those numbers come from <\/span><a class=\"general-link\" href=\"https:\/\/businessmirror.com.ph\/2025\/12\/02\/billionaires-emerge-from-crypto-deals\/?ki-cf-botcl=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">company filings<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> that place the combined group at about $13.6Bn.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Zhao\u2019s fortune is now <\/span><a class=\"general-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/czs-wealth-valued-at-89-billion-he-disagrees\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">estimated<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> at more than $60Bn.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sun\u2019s wealth is widely placed between $10Bn and $12Bn, supported by public wallet activity and holdings linked to TRX and other digital assets. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Song and Kim are not on that scale yet, but the transaction confirms something else. South Korea\u2019s largest exchange has produced a new class of regional crypto power players.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">And it shows that big exchange wealth is no longer limited to the US, Europe, or offshore hubs.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>DISCOVER:<\/b><a class=\"general-link\" href=\"https:\/\/99bitcoins.com\/cryptocurrency\/high-risk-high-reward-crypto\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener sponsored\"> <b>9+ Best High-Risk, High-Reward Crypto to Buy in 2025<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n<h2><b>Can Bithumb\u2019s Fee Cuts Really Challenge Upbit\u2019s Market Share?<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">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.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">They secured early backing from Kakao and local investors, then opened the exchange Upbit in 2017. Its close link to KakaoTalk, the country\u2019s main messaging app, helped drive fast adoption.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">That strategy made Upbit South Korea\u2019s biggest crypto exchange. It now handles about 70\u201372% of all local trading, based on industry estimates.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a class=\"general-link\" href=\"https:\/\/coinlaw.io\/upbit-statistics\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Data<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> from CoinLaw shows Upbit took around 71.6% of Korea\u2019s crypto volume in the first half of 2025. Average daily trading during that period came in near \u20a94.6 trillion, or about $3.4Bn.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the last 24 hours alone, CoinGecko <\/span><a class=\"general-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.coingecko.com\/en\/exchanges\/upbit\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">data<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> shows the exchange handled about $1.7Bn in trades. The most active markets were XRP\/KRW, BTC\/KRW, and ETH\/KRW.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The deal could further tighten South Korea\u2019s already crowded trading market. Even as rival Bithumb cut fees and pushed its share toward 30%, Upbit still held near 70%.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A combined Naver\u2013Dunamu group would have rare control over pricing, listings, and where everyday traders take their money.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>DISCOVER:<\/b><a class=\"general-link\" href=\"https:\/\/99bitcoins.com\/cryptocurrency\/best-crypto-to-buy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener sponsored\"> <b>Top 20 Crypto to Buy in 2025<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/99bitcoins.com\/news\/altcoins\/watch-out-cz-justin-sun-2025-put-two-new-south-korean-crypto-billionaires-on-the-block\/\">Watch Out CZ, Justin Sun: 2025 Put Two New South Korean Crypto Billionaires on the Block<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/99bitcoins.com\/\">99Bitcoins<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>South Korea has quietly produced two new crypto billionaires, putting them in the same league as Changpeng \u201cCZ\u201d 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 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3,4,5],"class_list":["post-61596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-crypto","tag-doge","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=61596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61596\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=61596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=61596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=61596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}