Original | Odaily Planet Daily ( @OdailyChina )

Author | Dingdang ( @XiaMiPP )

On September 25th, Naver Financial announced a full share swap with Dunamu, Upbit's parent company. The plan is to issue new shares in exchange for Dunamu shareholders' shares, ultimately achieving full ownership of Dunamu. Following the announcement, Naver's stock price surged, breaking through key resistance levels and reaching a peak intraday gain of 16%.

The reason why this stock swap can boost the stock price so much may have to do with Naver’s profound layout in the Web 3 field.

From Payments to Crypto: Naver Financial's Transformation Journey

Naver Financial, the fintech subsidiary of South Korean internet giant Naver, was established in 2017 and primarily operates payment services such as Naver Pay. However, Naver's focus extends beyond traditional fintech. As early as 2021, Naver demonstrated a keen interest in the cryptocurrency sector, attempting to acquire Bithumb, a major South Korean cryptocurrency exchange. Although the acquisition ultimately failed, the move did reveal its ambitions in digital assets.

In 2022, Naver further entered the NFT and metaverse fields, even investing approximately 100 billion won (approximately US$78.3988 million) in TVT Venture Fund 3, which focuses on Web 3, SaaS, and B2C platforms. This series of actions clearly outlines Naver's strategic trajectory in its transition from the traditional internet to Web 3.

Fast forward to July 2025, when Upbit's parent company, Dunamu, confirmed a partnership with Naver Pay to develop a Korean won stablecoin payment service. The project, led by Naver Pay and assisted by Dunamu, planned to further clarify the details of the collaboration after relevant regulations were finalized. Simultaneously, Naver Financial acquired shares in Stockplus Unlisted, Dunamu's unlisted stock trading platform, becoming its largest shareholder. This could be considered a prelude to a stock swap between Dunamu and Naver.

This transaction will accelerate Naver's entry into the stablecoin and digital asset payment space, fulfilling its unfinished wish regarding the Bithumb exchange in 2021. From an industry perspective, this is also a milestone merger and acquisition in South Korea's tech and crypto sectors, signaling the accelerated entry of traditional internet companies into digital finance and the transformation of traditional payments towards Web 3.

The Birth of the GIWA Chain: Upbit’s Layer 2 Ambition

Dunamu is the parent company of Upbit, South Korea's largest cryptocurrency exchange. Upbit is not only a leading cryptocurrency exchange in South Korea but also one of the world's largest in terms of trading volume, boasting strong technical expertise and market influence. Recently, Upbit has unveiled a new narrative: the GIWA Chain .

Built on the OP Stack, GIWA is positioned as an Ethereum Layer 2 platform, boasting 1-second block times and full EVM compatibility. Developers can directly migrate Solidity contracts and reuse Ethereum development tools. On the surface, this is a technological exploration aimed at lowering the barrier to entry for Web 3 users; however, the deeper meaning lies in Upbit's desire to reclaim its ecosystem narrative and value capture through its own blockchain.

However, Upbit's move seems a bit late. Globally, exchanges building their own blockchains has become an industry trend. Binance Exchange's BNB Chain has long been a leading player in the crypto industry. The recent 60-fold surge in the perpetual swap DEX Aster on the chain has ignited the entire perpetual DEX sector, even helping push the exchange's native token, BNB, above 1,000 yuan. Coinbase Exchange's Base Chain has also seen rapid growth in the past year, even incubating major successes like Pengu.

Ultimately, if centralized exchanges rely solely on transaction fees, their revenue ceiling is too obvious; but once they have their own chains, they can enter a longer-term and more imaginative growth curve through the incubation of ecological projects, the empowerment of native tokens, and the value accumulation of on-chain applications.

Of course, the key to this stock swap transaction lies not only in Upbit, but also in Naver’s own payment network .

Naver Pay has over 30 million users, and Naver Shopping's transaction volume has reached 50 trillion won. If Naver issues a stablecoin based on GIWA Chain and introduces it into this large-scale payment ecosystem, the two companies are expected to generate significant synergy.

Conclusion

From Naver Pay's payment services to Dunamu's exchange and blockchain technology, and finally to GIWA Chain's Layer 2 exploration, Naver is building a closed-loop strategy encompassing payments, stablecoins, and public blockchains. This share swap is not only a capital transaction, but also an accelerator of strategic transformation.

As South Korea's policies gradually open up to digital assets, Naver undoubtedly has an advantage. However, challenges remain. Can the GIWA Chain stand out in the Layer 2 market? Can Naver's ecosystem integration be successfully implemented? The answers to these questions will only be determined by time.