The Democratic Party of Korea policy committee and the Financial Services Commission are said to be preparing to include a cap limiting major shareholders' equity in virtual asset exchanges to 15%–20% in the soon-to-be-introduced phase-two virtual asset law (Digital Asset Basic Act). If the bill passes, Naver Financial, which is pushing to merge with Dunamu, the operator of the Upbit virtual asset exchange, and Mirae Asset, which acquired Korbit, will have to overhaul their governance structures.
Once the merger process between Naver Financial and Dunamu is completed, the new entity's equity would be held 19.5% by Dunamu Chair Song Chi-hyung and 17% by Naver. If the major shareholder equity cap is set at 15%, Song and Naver would have to transfer part of their equity elsewhere.
Mirae Asset Consulting recently disclosed it would acquire 26,905,842 common shares of the Korbit virtual asset exchange for a total of 133.47988 billion won. When the transaction is completed, its equity stake would be 92.06%, far exceeding the anticipated major shareholder cap. Because of this, industry observers say, "Mirae Asset's dilemma is not how much equity to offload, but how many companies to offload it to."
If the major shareholder equity cap is set at 20%, Mirae Asset would have to sell 72.06% equity to at least four companies. If the cap is set at 15%, it would have to transfer 77.06% equity to at least five companies.
Other exchanges are in the same situation. Bithumb has 73.56% of its equity held by Bithumb Holdings. At Coinone, CEO Cha Myung-hoon holds 53.44%, and at GOPAX, Binance Holdings Ltd. holds 67.45%.
The industry expects that it will take at least several months to as long as several years for domestic exchanges to adjust equity holdings, because equity must be transferred to multiple companies, increasing the number of negotiation counterparts. One official said, "While years are wasted reshaping governance to meet the cap, Korea's virtual asset market will drift away from and fall behind the global trend."
A Naver Financial official said, "Since no key issues such as stablecoins and major shareholder equity limits have been finalized, our internal view is that it is not the time to draft detailed business structures or set directions," adding, "We plan to proceed with discussions with Dunamu in line with the legislation process."