Virtual asset exchange Coinone joined hands with Com2uS Holdings, Korea Investment & Securities Co. (Korea Investment Holdings), and global virtual asset exchange OKX Ventures (hereafter OKX) to declare its bid to leap into a global full-service financial company.
On the 4th, Coinone CEO Cha Myung-hoon held a press briefing at the Yeouido headquarters in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul, in the morning with Com2uS Holdings Chair Song Byung-joon, Korea Investment & Securities Co. CEO Kim Sung-hwan, and OKX CEO Star Xu and announced the direction of strategic cooperation.
Founder Cha will retain the position of largest shareholder with 30.36% equity, and Com2uS Holdings will remain the second-largest shareholder with 24.54% equity. Korea Investment & Securities Co. and OKX recently secured 20% of Coinone through equity investment, joining as co-third-largest shareholders.
They emphasized that this partnership is not a simple financial investment (FI·Financial Investor) but a strategic investment (SI·Strategic Investor) to link traditional finance with the virtual asset market. They expressed their ambition to become a leading player in the global digital finance market by creating synergy from each company's strengths.
Korea Investment & Securities Co. cited traditional finance compliance and trust as its strengths, OKX its technological prowess, Com2uS Holdings its game and other content intellectual property rights (IP·Intellectual property rights), and Coinone its domestic won market and exchange operation know-how.
Kim said, "We decided to invest in Coinone because we want to serve as a hub consolidating institutional finance and the virtual asset market," adding, "When Korea Investment & Securities Co.'s traditional finance capabilities meet Blockchain technology, we can create a new financial paradigm in the virtual asset ecosystem that will unfold going forward."
Kim added, "Traditional assets such as stocks, bonds, and funds will ultimately be digitized, and if they do not grow alongside the virtual asset market, they will inevitably fall behind that trend," and "We chose Coinone instead of Upbit and Bithumb because we saw Coinone's never-breached, strong security as a strength."
OKX stressed that, through cooperation with Coinone, it will introduce quality services and products to Korean virtual asset investors based on the technology and operational experience it has built over the past 13 years. OKX, which has more than 50 million subscribers, operates with licenses obtained in more than 27 countries, including the United Arab Emirates (UAE·United Arab Emirates) and Singapore.
Xu said, "We expect the virtual asset market to account for up to about half of the global economy over the next 10 years. Together with Coinone, we will provide better services to the Korean market and open a new chapter," adding, "We plan to raise the level of compliance that regulators can trust and to continuously strengthen our technological capabilities."
Cha said, "With this four-party alliance, the new shareholders have become reliable partners participating on the board to jointly discuss key decision-making," adding, "Coinone will not remain a simple virtual asset exchange but will grow into a Blockchain-based full-service financial company and become a global full-service financial platform used worldwide."