Hana’s 6.55% Dunamu Stake Faces FSC Review

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South Korea’s Financial Services Commission is reportedly reviewing whether Hana Bank’s planned stake purchase in Dunamu, the operator of Upbit, conflicts with the country’s bank-commerce separation rules.

The review has been reported by local media following Hana Financial Group’s disclosure of the deal. The core transaction itself was confirmed in regulatory filings.

1 Trillion Won Deal Targets Upbit Parent

Hana Bank agreed to acquire a 1 trillion won stake in Dunamu, representing 6.55% of the company. The seller is Kakao Investment, whose stake would fall to 4.03% after the sale.

Dunamu operates Upbit, South Korea’s dominant crypto exchange. Upbit handles more than 80% of the country’s virtual asset trading volume.

6.55% Stake Could Make Hana Fourth-Largest Holder

If completed, the deal would make Hana Bank Dunamu’s fourth-largest shareholder. It would also make Hana one of the most prominent South Korean banks with direct exposure to the parent company of the country’s largest crypto exchange.

That makes the transaction important beyond the size of the investment. It would link a major bank to a key piece of South Korea’s digital asset market infrastructure while crypto rules are still evolving.

FSC Review Tests Bank-Commerce Separation Rules

The reported regulatory question is whether Hana’s stake should be treated as a passive financial investment or as a bank taking a direct position in a non-financial digital asset business. South Korea has long maintained rules designed to limit how closely banks can be tied to commercial enterprises.

Local reports say the FSC is reviewing the Dunamu purchase under that policy logic. If regulators decide the deal crosses the line, the transaction could face conditions or resistance even though it has already been publicly announced.

Hana and Dunamu Already Worked on Remittances

The timing also matters because South Korean banks are moving deeper into digital assets, stablecoins and tokenized payments. Hana and Dunamu have already worked together on blockchain-based overseas remittance services, according to earlier reporting. That suggests the stake may fit into a broader digital asset strategy rather than a simple portfolio investment.

For now, the review does not mean the purchase will be blocked. But it gives regulators a test case for how far Korean banks can go in owning or aligning with crypto market infrastructure under existing bank-commerce separation rules.