Donamo recently revealed a 78% year-on-year decline in operating profit for the first quarter of 2026. The company recorded 88 billion won ($60 million) due to lower trading volume affecting fee revenue.
Even with lower revenues, Hana Financial Group confirmed its acquisition of a 6.55% stake in Dunamu, operator of South Korea’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Upbit, for 1 trillion won ($669 million).
Why did Donamo’s profits decline in the first quarter of 2026?
Donamo recently revealed that its consolidated revenue reached 234.6 billion won ($156 million) for the first quarter, down 55% from 516.2 billion won ($345 million) a year earlier. The company’s net profit fell by the same margin by 78% to 69.5 billion won ($46 million), down from 320.5 billion won ($214 million) in the first quarter of 2025.
So far, the decline has been attributed to “decreased virtual asset market trading volume.” About 97% of Dunamu’s revenue comes from transaction fees Decrease in trading activity A case for the company.
Customers also deposit less money. Donamo held about 5.199 trillion won ($3.4 billion) of customer funds at the end of the first quarter, down 11% from December 2025.
The South Korean market is Migration of digital assets For local stocks, especially those linked to the AI boom. This trend can be seen in the KOSPI 200, which has risen more than 200% in the past year.
At the end of 2025, Donamo reported 13.17 trillion won ($8.81 billion) in total assets and generated 709 billion won in net profit along with 1.56 trillion won in full-year revenue. Donamo has been required to submit quarterly and annual reports to regulators since 2022, when it passed the threshold of 500 shareholders per security class.
Hana Financial Company invests in Donamo despite the decline in revenues
in spite of Decrease in stock market profitsHana Bank has certain It will buy a 6.55% stake in Kakao Investment, making it the fourth largest shareholder in Dunamu. The partnership involves co-developing digital financial products, including stablecoin initiatives, and expanding existing collaborations beyond providing paper banking paths for Upbit users.
Declining revenues aren’t the only pressure facing Upbit and other South Korean cryptocurrency exchanges. Cryptopolitan has I mentioned previously On the regulatory pressures facing Korean stock exchange operators. South Korean authorities are pushing platforms to dilute major shareholder concentrations and improve corporate accountability.
The Financial Services Commission earlier this year mandated that major exchanges reconcile internal ledgers with actual cryptocurrency holdings every five minutes and submit them for inspection every six months instead of annually, after operational failures at multiple institutions.
The acquisition of Hana Financial’s stake still requires standard regulatory approvals. Separately, Naver Financial revealed its plans in November 2025 to acquire Dunamu as a wholly-owned subsidiary through a stock swap, although the status of that arrangement along with the Hana deal remains unclear.
Korean regulators are also preparing a 22% cryptocurrency earnings tax from January 2027, which could reduce retail trading volumes that exchanges like Upbit rely on.
Don’t just read cryptocurrency news. Understand that. Subscribe to our newsletter. It’s free.
