Daily Crypto Briefs 
SEOUL, August 6, 2026
Mirae Asset Consulting has raised its holding in South Korean crypto exchange Korbit to 97.15%, completing a takeover that will rebrand the country’s oldest exchange as Digital X and place it inside one of Asia’s largest independent financial groups.
The completed deal gives a traditional-finance group control of a domestic exchange at a time when South Korea is opening more channels for institutional participation in digital assets. Mirae Asset says the planned Digital X platform will connect conventional investments with tokenized real-world assets, security tokens, stablecoins and other digital assets.
Bitcoin held near $65,000 on August 6 after trading broadly between about $59,500 and $66,500 over the preceding month, according to Kraken’s Bitcoin price page. Korbit’s 97.15% ownership figure is the headline transaction metric, while its roughly 0.5% share of South Korean crypto trading in 2025 shows the deal is not an attempt to displace the country’s largest retail venues overnight.
The Korea Fair Trade Commission cleared Mirae Asset Consulting’s acquisition before the stake increase, according to Korean reporting. In describing the next phase, Mirae Asset said Digital X would be an “intelligent investment platform” rather than simply another venue competing for spot-trading volume, CoinDesk reported.
Bitcoin
BTCMirae Asset completes 97.15% Korbit acquisition
Mirae Asset Consulting first agreed in February to buy a 92.06% stake for about 133.5 billion won, or roughly $91 million at the time. The increase to 97.15% followed regulatory clearance and made the affiliate Korbit’s dominant shareholder, according to The Korea Times’ report on the completed deal.
The transaction is being executed through Mirae Asset Consulting, a non-financial affiliate, rather than directly by a regulated financial subsidiary. That structure has drawn attention because South Korea has historically separated conventional finance from virtual-asset exchange ownership, even as the policy framework has begun to evolve.
Korbit was founded in 2013 and is widely described as South Korea’s first homegrown crypto exchange. Its corporate operator is not changing, and there was no announced interruption to deposits, withdrawals or customer accounts as ownership shifted, reports on the transaction said.
The deal differs from a new token listing or a retail-trading promotion. It puts an existing exchange license, custody operations and market infrastructure under a group whose stated aim is broader asset integration, an approach that could become more relevant if South Korea’s tokenized-securities and stablecoin rules develop as planned.
Digital X targets tokenized assets and institutional users
Mirae Asset plans to relaunch Korbit as Digital X, with an emphasis on education, research, compliance and institutional-grade infrastructure rather than direct competition with Upbit and Bithumb for day-to-day trading share. The firm has not published a launch date, product list or customer-fee schedule for the renamed platform.
The plan brings several asset types into the same strategic description: traditional assets, digital assets, security tokens, stablecoins and real-world assets represented on a blockchain. Those products have different legal rights and risk profiles, so the rebrand alone does not mean each will be available for trading or settlement when Digital X launches.
South Korea has already begun loosening some boundaries around corporate participation. In January, the Financial Services Commission’s proposals allowed limited digital-asset investment by listed companies and professional investors, as our coverage of the corporate-crypto framework detailed.
That makes Korbit’s new ownership a useful test of whether a domestic financial group can build a compliant bridge between brokerage-style investment services and virtual-asset infrastructure. The extent of that bridge will depend on approvals, product disclosures and the eventual rules for tokenized securities and stablecoins, none of which were settled by the acquisition itself.
Korbit’s small market share keeps the focus on structure
Korbit held about 0.5% of Korea’s crypto-trading market in 2025, the competition authority noted in reporting on its clearance. That limited share helped support a finding that the deal was unlikely to materially restrict competition, but it also frames the commercial challenge for the Digital X strategy.
The better-known immediate comparison is not a local volume contest but SBI Holdings’ recent majority investment in Singapore platform Coinhako. Both transactions connect established Asian financial groups with regulated exchange infrastructure, though the jurisdictions, licenses and disclosed terms differ.
For users, the immediate facts are narrower than the long-term ambition: Korbit continues to operate, Mirae Asset Consulting controls 97.15%, and a Digital X rebrand is planned. No timetable has been disclosed for new tokenized-asset products, and no change in customer services was announced with the takeover’s completion.
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August 6, 2026The next items to watch are the formal Digital X launch, any product approvals from Korean authorities and whether Mirae Asset specifies which asset classes will be available first. The ownership change is complete; the platform that makes the acquisition strategically significant is still being defined.
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Primary sources and further reading
| Source | Title |
|---|---|
| | Korbit official website |
| | Korea Fair Trade Commission |
| | CoinDesk: Mirae Asset plans Digital X platform |
| | The Korea Times: Mirae Asset completes Korbit acquisition |
| | Kraken: Bitcoin price |
Fact-checked by: Daily Crypto Briefs Fact-Check Desk
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Frequently Asked Questions
How much of Korbit does Mirae Asset own?
Mirae Asset Consulting increased its holding in Korbit to 97.15% after completing the acquisition. The deal followed clearance from South Korea's Fair Trade Commission.
What is Digital X?
Digital X is the planned new name and institutional-focused platform strategy for Korbit. Mirae Asset says it intends to connect traditional assets, digital assets, tokenized real-world assets, security tokens and stablecoins.
Will the Korbit acquisition affect customer deposits or withdrawals?
The completed-transaction reporting said the corporate entity operating Korbit would not change and that customer services, deposits and withdrawals would not be disrupted.
Why is Mirae Asset's Korbit deal important for South Korea crypto?
It is the first completed controlling acquisition of a domestic crypto exchange by an affiliate of a South Korean financial group. Korbit's modest market share means the immediate importance is the ownership and infrastructure model, rather than a change in trading leadership.