Key points
- Dunamu, which runs Korea's biggest crypto exchange Upbit, is preparing an IPO after a stock swap with Naver Financial.
- It is reviewing US accounting rules, which analysts read as a sign it may list abroad, though Dunamu says no country is decided.
- A Seoul listing would run into the duplicate-listing rule Korea tightened this month, because Naver Financial's parent Naver is already on the Kospi.
Dunamu is preparing to take the company public, but the initial clues suggest Korea may not be its preferred market. The operator of Upbit, the country's largest cryptocurrency exchange, said this week that it intends to pursue an IPO after completing its stock swap with Naver Financial. Dunamu has also asked a Korean accounting firm to compare US requirements with the Korean standards it currently follows. Analysts view that review as a possible step toward preparing the accounts for a US offering. The company says no decision has been made and that it has not chosen a listing country.
Before any IPO can proceed, the share exchange must be completed. The transaction values Dunamu at roughly 15 trillion won ($10.8 billion) and Naver Financial at approximately 5 trillion won ($3.6 billion). Each Dunamu share will be exchanged for 2.54 shares of Naver Financial. Shareholders are scheduled to vote on November 19, with the exchange set to close on December 31. Dunamu then expects to establish an IPO committee within one year and is targeting a listing within five years.
The reason a US listing keeps coming up is a Korean rule that already caused a stir this summer. Naver Financial is a unit of Naver, which trades on the Kospi. Listing Dunamu at home would look like putting a second piece of the same company on the market, which runs straight into the duplicate-listing rule Korea tightened this month. A US listing sidesteps that, and if Dunamu goes that way, analysts expect it to use an American depositary receipt, the same structure SK Hynix used on the Nasdaq.
Dunamu's also the only Korean crypto exchange that still reports under the Korean accounting standard, K-IFRS, rather than the international one most large listings use. Switching that's slow, detailed work, and doing it now lines up with a company preparing to sell shares to foreign investors. None of it names a country, but all of it points the same way.
The timing's its own story. Dunamu's teeing up a listing after a hard year for Korean crypto. Its first-half revenue fell about half from a year earlier as trading dried up. Then last week the market woke back up, and Upbit's daily volume rose more than eightfold in five days, with a Trump memecoin and XRP both trading more than bitcoin. A company that just watched its revenue halve and then spike is one that'd rather list on its own timing than the market's.
What happens next runs on the calendar it just set. The shareholder vote is in November, the swap closes at year end, and the listing decision, including the country, comes after that. Until then, the clearest tell is the accounting.
Sources:
- 디지털타임스, 두나무 네이버파이낸셜과 주식교환 후 IPO, on the swap valuations, ratio and timeline
- 비즈워치, 두나무 美 회계기준 검토, on the US accounting review, K-IFRS and the duplicate-listing point
- 데일리안, 두나무 美 회계기준 검토 주식교환 마치고 IPO, on the IPO plan and the accounting comparison
Our earlier coverage:
- Korea's new duplicate-listing rule and the hole in it.
- Korean crypto trading surged, and a Trump memecoin outtraded bitcoin.
Won figures are converted to US dollars at an exchange rate near 1,383 won to the dollar. This is not investment advice.
