[Click eStock] "Merged Entity of Naver Financial and Dunamu Poised to Benefit Most from Second-Phase Virtual Asset Legislation"

On November 27, Meritz Securities analyzed that the merged entity of Naver Financial and Dunamu is expected to be the biggest beneficiary of the second phase of virtual asset legislation.

The previous day, NAVER announced that its board of directors had approved a proposal to incorporate Dunamu as an affiliate through a comprehensive stock swap with Naver Financial. In addition to holding a 17% stake in the merged Naver Financial, NAVER will secure delegated voting rights for shares held by Dunamu Chairman Song Chi-hyung and Vice Chairman Kim Hyung-nyeon (19.5% and 10%, respectively), thereby maintaining a dominant position with a total of 46.5%.

Lee Hyojin, a researcher at Meritz Securities, stated, "The merger was decided with a stock swap ratio of 1 to 2.54 between Naver Financial and Dunamu," and added, "The value ratio between the companies is 1 to 3.06, which is similar to previous estimates."

She explained, "The merged entity is expected to be the biggest beneficiary of the second phase of digital asset legislation," and emphasized, "Attention should be paid to new business opportunities arising from stablecoins and tokenization."

She also anticipated that if stablecoin issuance becomes a reality, the merged entity could serve as a mainnet similar to Coinbase.

She noted, "Rather than focusing solely on the issuance of stablecoins, it is reasonable to expect reduced fees-previously paid to credit card companies-through payment services, as well as interest income," and added, "This is based on the assumption that domestic legislation will be similar to that of the United States. Under the GENIUS Act, interest cannot be paid to coin holders, but this benefit is currently enjoyed by Circle and Coinbase."

She further commented, "Considering the '51%' rule maintained by the Bank of Korea, the merged entity could play a mainnet role similar to Coinbase, and interest income appears to have greater visibility than revenue from issuance and distribution."

She also expects the merged entity to benefit in the Security Token Offering (STO) market. "The STO bill is expected to pass the plenary session as early as next month," she said, "and in Europe, the market is rapidly developing as the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation establishes rules for real-world asset (RWA) tokenization."

She continued, "A notable point is that stock token securities-both unlisted and listed-are being listed primarily through cryptocurrency exchanges," and stressed, "If Korea follows a similar path, the merged entity, which owns Upbit, the world's fifth-largest exchange, will expand its business beyond a simple cryptocurrency exchange into the domain of traditional financial institutions."