Hana Financial, Dunamu Expand Digital Finance Tie-Up to Include Won Stablecoins, STOs, RWAs

Hana Financial Group and Dunamu are expanding their partnership into digital finance, including won-denominated stablecoins, security token offerings and real-world asset tokenization.

Yonhap News reported on July 21 that the companies recently held a closed-door meeting with senior executives to discuss the direction of their medium- to long-term cooperation.

Those attending included Hana Financial Chairman Ham Young-joo, Vice Chairman Lee Eun-hyung and Dunamu Vice Chairman Kim Hyoung-nyon. They shared strategic cooperation plans under the theme, “Time Together, Future Together, Opening the Future of Digital Finance Together.”

Hana Bank, a core affiliate of Hana Financial, said in May that it would acquire about 1 trillion won ($720 million) of shares in Dunamu, the operator of crypto exchange Upbit. The purchase made Hana Bank Dunamu’s fourth-largest shareholder with a 6.6% stake.

The companies are discussing won stablecoins, STOs and RWAs as key areas of cooperation. They are also reviewing ways to combine Hana Financial’s anti-money laundering and internal control systems, along with its foreign-exchange and global payments network, with Dunamu’s blockchain technology and digital-asset user base.

They are also considering integrated financial services as a medium- to long-term project. The plan is to build a service that can analyze and manage customer assets spread across multiple financial firms and crypto exchanges as a single portfolio, including deposits, stocks and digital assets.

The companies are also discussing joint product development and marketing cooperation tied to broader corporate participation in the crypto market.

They are pursuing cooperation in overseas remittances and payments as well. The companies are reviewing ways to simplify cross-border transfer procedures by combining Hana Financial’s foreign-exchange and global finance infrastructure with Dunamu’s blockchain technology. Dunamu is developing and testing its in-house Web3 infrastructure, Giwa.

The two sides are also examining ways to apply the technology to trade settlement and corporate fund transfers. They are discussing what Yonhap described as “K-blockchain finance,” or exporting blockchain-based financial services developed in South Korea to overseas markets through Hana Financial’s global business network.

Ham told the meeting that he would work with Dunamu to build a bigger future that no one has reached before, underscoring his commitment to long-term cooperation, Yonhap reported.