Korbit Rebrands as Digital X After Mirae Asset Closes $102 Million Takeover

Mirae Asset Consulting has taken majority control of Korbit, South Korea’s oldest cryptocurrency exchange, marking the first time an affiliate of a major Korean financial group has run a domestic crypto platform. The deal, worth about 141.4 billion won ($95 million to $102 million), raised Mirae Asset’s stake to 97.15%. South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission cleared the acquisition on July 9, 2026, citing Korbit’s roughly 0.5% share of the country’s crypto trading market in 2025, which regulators deemed insufficient to restrict competition.

Korbit was founded in 2013 and trails market leaders Upbit and Bithumb by a wide margin. For now, its operating entity, user deposits, and core trading services remain unchanged, with customer assets held separately under existing protection rules. Mirae Asset Financial Group reports about $1 trillion in client assets under management as of May 2026.

The exchange is being renamed Digital X. Mirae Asset founder Park Hyeon-joo explained the “X” represents an uncharted future and the convergence of different forms of value. The rebranding is central to a strategy called Mirae Asset 3.0, which aims to connect real-world asset tokenization, security token offerings, stablecoins, traditional securities, and digital assets on a single intelligent investment platform. The company plans to combine research, investor education, and institutional-grade compliance systems, including anti-money-laundering, know-your-customer, and fraud detection tools.

Mirae Asset has stated that Digital X is not designed to compete with Upbit or Bithumb on trading volume. Instead, it is positioning the platform as infrastructure, leveraging its securities and asset management expertise alongside Korbit’s digital asset operations. Park noted Bitcoin’s shift from skepticism to mainstream acceptance and emphasized that compliance is an absolute standard. The move follows Mirae Asset’s earlier launch of the Mirae Asset Portfolio Service in Hong Kong, which integrates traditional and digital assets for global clients.

Full integration of tokenized real-world assets, security token offerings, and stablecoins remains a stated goal rather than a completed build, with execution depending on future Korean regulatory developments. For now, Digital X operates with Korbit’s existing licenses and user base while Mirae Asset works to blend a regulated brokerage approach into a crypto exchange still finding its footing against larger domestic rivals.

Source: https://news.bitcoin.com/korbit-rebrands-as-digital-x-after-mirae-asset-closes-102-million-takeover/