Dunamu, operator of South Korean digital-asset exchange Upbit, reported consolidated operating revenue of ₩408.1 billion in the first half, down 49.1% from ₩801.9 billion a year earlier. That was the first half of 2026, and the Upbit statistics behind it track trading activity closely: transaction fee revenue totaled about ₩1.53 trillion, accounting for 98.26% of the company’s total sales in 2025, according to The Elec.
The figures below follow Upbit through Dunamu’s quarterly filings, CoinGecko trading volume, the fee rates Upbit publishes for its KRW market, the shareholder register, the pending Naver Financial share swap, the November hot-wallet breach, and a fine of ₩35.2 billion from the Korea Financial Intelligence Unit. Where Dunamu does not disclose a metric, such as Upbit’s own user count or its standalone market share, the gap is stated rather than estimated.
Key Takeaways
- Dunamu’s operating profit margin fell by 41.2 percentage points, from 68.5% last year to 27.3% this year, comparing the first halves of 2025 and 2026, per Venturesquare.
- Upbit’s first-quarter 2026 trading volume ran roughly 51% lower than in the third quarter of 2025, based on CoinGecko data.
- Hana Financial Group bought a 6.55% stake in Dunamu, becoming its fourth-largest shareholder, according to the Korea Herald.
- Kakao Investment’s holdings fell to 1.406 million shares, or a 4.03% stake, after selling to Hana, per the Seoul Economic Daily.
- After the November hack, Dunamu fully compensated for the ₩38.6 billion in user assets using Upbit’s own funds, SBS reported.
- Upbit’s API reference shows a sample KRW-BTC fee rate of 0.0005, which equals 0.05% of the executed amount.
Editor’s Choice
- H1 2026 operating profit: fell 79.7% to ₩111.5 billion from ₩549.1 billion.
- Q3 2025 trading volume: ₩43.96 trillion on Upbit, according to CoinGecko.
- Naver Financial swap value: about ₩15.1 trillion, equivalent to $10.3 billion, per RTTNews on Nasdaq.
- KoFIU fine: ₩35.2 billion ($24.3 million) for customer identification violations, according to Yonhap.
- Hack losses: approximately 100 billion coins (worth ₩44.5 billion) in Solana network-based assets left an Upbit wallet.
- Coins and pairs: 346 coins and 539 pairs listed in CoinGecko’s exchange data.
Dunamu Quarterly Revenue and Operating Profit
Compiled from 24 source entries: 4 tier 1 (Upbit’s API reference, a Financial Services Commission release, Kaiko research), 1 tier 2 (CoinGecko’s API) and 19 tier 3, mostly Korean business press reporting Dunamu’s filings. Sources date from July 2024 to September 2026; only figures published by Dunamu, regulators, or named data providers qualify.
- Third-quarter 2025 revenue rose 35% from the previous quarter, and operating profit rose by 54%.
- Net profit increased by 145% from the previous quarter’s ₩97.6 billion, reaching ₩239 billion in the third quarter of 2025.
- First-quarter 2026 revenue was down 55% year over year, while operating profit was down 78% year over year.
- Second-quarter 2026 revenue fell 26.0% from the first quarter, and operating profit fell 73.3%.
- Net profit decreased 43.9% from ₩69.5 billion to ₩39 billion between the first and second quarters of 2026.
- Standalone fourth-quarter 2025 results were not in the disclosures reviewed, so the table skips that quarter.
| Quarter | Revenue (₩ billion) | Operating profit (₩ billion) |
|---|---|---|
| Q1 2025 | 516.2 | 396.3 |
| Q2 2025 | 285.7 | 152.8 |
| Q3 2025 | 385.9 | 235.3 |
| Q1 2026 | 234.6 | 88 |
| Q2 2026 | 173.5 | 23.5 |
Source: Dunamu quarterly reports via The Elec, Asia Business Daily and Venturesquare, 2025-2026
Dunamu Operating Margin Trend
- The quarterly margin fell 24.0 percentage points between the first and second quarters of 2026.
- Third-quarter 2025 operating profit equaled about 61% of revenue.
- First-quarter 2025 operating profit equaled about 77% of revenue.
- Operating profit falling faster than revenue points to costs that did not shrink with trading activity.
Recent Developments
- July 2026: Naver’s revised disclosure moved Naver Financial’s shareholders’ meeting to Nov. 19, 2026 from Aug. 18, 2026, and the share swap date to Dec. 31 from Sept. 30.
- July 2026: The Financial Supervisory Service recently sent an inspection report to Dunamu regarding the hacking incident, according to financial authorities.
- August 2026: Dunamu disclosed its 2026 half-year report on August 14, with net income down 74.1% to ₩108.4 billion.
- August 2026: In San Francisco, Dunamu CEO Oh Kyung-seok and Visa Global President Oliver Jenkyn met at Visa’s Global Market Support Center in San Francisco on August 26 to explore stablecoin payments, global remittances, and AI-powered financial services.
- September 2026: Dunamu said on Sept. 22 it will hold the Upbit Institutional Summit (UIS) on Sept. 29 at the Grand Walkerhill Seoul.
Upbit Trading Volume by Quarter
- CoinGecko data shows Upbit’s first-quarter 2026 volume was below levels recorded in all previous quarters last year.
- Volume in the third quarter of 2025 ran roughly 43% higher than in the second quarter.
- CoinGecko’s exchange API showed 24-hour volume of roughly 17,748 BTC on September 26, 2026.
- The fourth quarter of 2025 gave back roughly 37% of the third quarter’s level.
- Upbit’s totals are in won, while most venues in our crypto exchange volume statistics report dollar volume, so currency conversion matters when comparing them.
What is the current trading volume on Upbit?
Upbit’s 24-hour trading volume stood at roughly 17,748 BTC in CoinGecko’s exchange data on September 26, 2026. On a quarterly basis, Upbit’s trading volume during the first quarter totaled ₩21.59 trillion in 2026, below every quarter of 2025 that CoinGecko reported.
Upbit Trading Fees on the KRW Market
- Upbit’s Open API reference applies the fee rate in effect at the time the order is submitted via the Open API.
- Upbit’s help centre computes the fee as the executed amount, meaning executed quantity multiplied by executed price, times the market’s fee rate.
- In the help centre’s example, a reserved buy of 1 BTC at ₩10,000,000 with a 0.139% fee deducts ₩10,013,900.
- A reserved sale of 1 BTC at ₩10,000,000 at the same 0.139% fee credits ₩9,986,100 to the seller.
- The same fee applies to all members, individual and corporate, and trading fees include value-added tax.
- KRW market trading fees are displayed to two decimal places, and fees can change during limited-time events, based on when the order is submitted.
| Fee field in the KRW-BTC sample response | Rate |
|---|---|
| bid_fee | 0.0005 |
| ask_fee | 0.0005 |
| maker_bid_fee | 0.0005 |
| maker_ask_fee | 0.0005 |
Source: Upbit Open API reference, September 2026
What is Upbit’s trading fee on the KRW market?
Upbit’s Open API reference shows a sample KRW-BTC response with bid, ask, and maker fee rates of 0.0005, equal to 0.05% of the executed amount. The help centre’s reserved-order example uses 0.139%, and the rate charged is the fee rate in effect at the time the order is submitted.
How Much of Dunamu’s Revenue Comes From Trading Fees
- Dunamu said the decline in revenue and operating profit was caused by reduced cryptocurrency trading volumes amid a slowdown in the global economy in the first quarter of 2026.
- Industry observers pointed to weaker trading activity on Upbit as a key reason for the earnings decline.
Why it matters: Dunamu booked transaction fee revenue of about ₩1.53 trillion, accounting for 98.26% of the company’s total sales in 2025, per figures reported by The Elec. With almost no other revenue line, each swing in Upbit’s volume passes straight into Dunamu’s earnings, which is why profit fell much harder than sales in 2026.
Dunamu First-Half 2026 Results
- Revenue fell 49.1% year over year in the first half, and operating profit fell 79.7%.
- The decline in profitability was greater than the decrease in sales, according to Venturesquare’s reading of the filing.
- Dunamu cited reduced liquidity in the global digital asset market and weakened investor sentiment for the drop.
- Dunamu has been required to disclose annual, quarterly, and half-year reports since 2022 after becoming subject to external audits as a company with more than 500 securities holders.
Upbit Market Share in South Korea
- Tiger Research’s 2026 guide finds that Korea’s domestic crypto exchange market remains firmly structured around two players: Upbit and Bithumb.
- Tiger Research puts Upbit and Bithumb at approximately 87% market share, with Coinone trailing at around 10%.
- Global venue volumes are compared in our crypto exchange ranking by trading volume.
- A 2024 Kaiko and Presto Research report counted five major spot exchanges: Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit, and Gopax.
- The same report found Bitcoin’s premium on Korean markets, the Kimchi premium, averages 2-3%.
- Dunamu does not publish an Upbit-only market share in the materials reviewed, so the combined figures are the closest disclosed measure; our crypto exchange market share data tracks the global venues for comparison.
| Measure | Share | Period |
|---|---|---|
| Upbit and Bithumb combined market share | approximately 87% | 2026 guide |
| Coinone market share | around 10% | 2026 guide |
| Upbit and Bithumb share of trading volume | nearly 96% | 2024 report |
Source: Tiger Research 2026, Kaiko and Presto Research 2024
Worth noting: The two market-share readings come from different years and methods. Kaiko and Presto Research found Upbit and Bithumb accounting for nearly 96% of the total trading volume in 2024, while Tiger Research says together they hold approximately 87% market share in its 2026 guide, so neither isolates Upbit.
Is Upbit a big exchange?
Yes, within South Korea. SBS describes Upbit as the nation’s largest virtual asset exchange, and Tiger Research puts Upbit and Bithumb at approximately 87% market share combined. Its operator, Dunamu, is also partway through a share swap with Naver Financial.
South Korean Crypto Market Size
- Tiger Research reports that as of the end of 2025, the number of verified users reached 11.13 million, an all-time high.
- In the second half of 2025, tradable user accounts rose 3%, and KRW deposits rose 31%, according to the KoFIU and FSS survey.
- Exchange operating profit fell 38% over the same half.
- Daily average trading volume declined to approximately $3.7 billion, down 15% from the prior half-year.
- Users in their 30s were the most common age group in both halves of 2025.
- The survey does not break out Upbit’s slice of these totals; the wider picture of Korean ownership sits in our crypto adoption by country rankings.
Upbit Statistics on Coins, Trading Pairs and Trust Score
- CoinGecko’s profile describes Upbit as catering primarily to the South Korean market and expanding into Southeast Asia.
- Dunamu was founded in 2012 and runs services including Upbit and Securities Plus.
- Dunamu’s staffing is tracked separately in our Upbit workforce statistics, since the company does not disclose Upbit’s user totals.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Coins listed | 346 |
| Trading pairs | 539 |
| CoinGecko trust score | 8 |
| Trust score rank | 38 |
| Year established | 2017 |
Source: CoinGecko exchange API, September 2026
Is Upbit a Korean exchange?
Yes. CoinGecko’s exchange record lists Upbit’s country as South Korea, with 2017 as its year established. Its operator, Dunamu, says it has strictly complied with legal standards under the Act on the Protection of Virtual Asset Users, the Korean law governing virtual asset platforms, according to Asia Business Daily.
Who Owns Dunamu
- Hana’s board approved the purchase of 2,284,000 Dunamu shares from Kakao Investment for ₩1.033 trillion.
- Kakao’s own filing put the sale of 2.284 million shares, or 6.55%, at ₩1.0325 trillion.
- Hanwha Investment & Securities will buy an additional stake in Dunamu Inc., and is set to become the Upbit operator’s No. 3 shareholder above Hana.
- The stake chart reflects the Korea Herald’s May 2026 list, before any Hanwha purchase settles.
Naver Financial and Dunamu Share Swap Terms
- The deal amounts to a reverse merger, with Song Chi-hyung becoming Naver Financial’s largest shareholder, since Dunamu’s chair swaps into the acquirer’s stock.
- The swap would bring Dunamu into the company as a wholly owned subsidiary of Naver Financial.
- KED Global puts the combined business at a fintech group valued at some ₩20 trillion ($13.6 billion).
| Term | Value |
|---|---|
| Naver Financial shares per Dunamu share | 2.54 |
| Deal value (₩ trillion) | about 15.1 |
| Deal value ($ billion) | 10.3 |
| Song Chi-hyung’s stake in Naver Financial (%) | 19.5 |
Source: Nasdaq (RTTNews), KED Global, November 2025
Naver Financial and Dunamu Deal Timeline
- Naver has delayed a comprehensive share swap between its subsidiary Naver Financial and Dunamu by about three months, according to a company announcement reported by the Korea Herald.
- Naver said the adjustment reflects ongoing licensing procedures and changes in the regulatory framework.
- The second revision set the period for receiving notices of opposition to Nov. 4 to 18 and the period for receiving appraisal-rights requests to Nov. 19 to Dec. 9.
- The scheduled payment date is Dec. 16 for shareholders who exercise appraisal rights.
Upbit Hack Losses in November 2025
- On November 27, 2025, approximately 100 billion coins in Solana network-based assets were leaked to an external wallet from Upbit.
- The hacking took place over about 54 minutes, from 4:42 a.m. to 5:36 a.m. local time.
- The company faced criticism for a delayed notification after the breach.
- The FSS inspection report comes approximately seven months after the FSS launched an inspection following the incident.
- Exchange breaches like this one feed the loss totals in our crypto security and fraud statistics.
Exchange custody risk: In the November breach, Dunamu froze ₩2.6 billion and is currently undergoing recovery procedures out of the affected assets. Upbit chose to absorb the user losses from its own funds; that was a company decision after the fact, not a guarantee that applies to any future incident.
Upbit Regulatory Fines and Sanctions
- The KoFIU, an affiliate of the Financial Services Commission, announced a fine of ₩35.2 billion ($24.3 million) on Dunamu in November 2025.
- The FIU found that Dunamu accepted re-photographed image files of user portraits, in which their identities could not be fully verified, instead of requiring original documents.
- Dunamu rejected the regulator’s findings and filed a lawsuit, arguing it had complied with the so-called travel rule, which requires exchanges to share transaction details for transfers exceeding ₩1 million.
| KoFIU finding | Cases |
|---|---|
| Customer identity verification failures | about 5.3 million |
| Transactions not restricted for unverified users | 3.3 million |
| Suspicious transactions not reported | 15 |
Source: Korea Times (Yonhap), November 2025
By the numbers: Two late-2025 setbacks stand apart: a fine of ₩35.2 billion from the KoFIU, which Dunamu is contesting in court, and the ₩38.6 billion in user assets Upbit repaid from its own funds after the hack.
Is Upbit regulated?
Yes. In 2021, the KoFIU adopted a registration system for virtual asset service providers (VASPs) and made them subject to the AML duty, and it used that authority to impose a fine of ₩35.2 billion on Dunamu. The Financial Supervisory Service is also reviewing the November hack.
Conclusion
Trading fees of about ₩1.53 trillion accounted for 98.26% of the company’s total sales last year, and that dependence showed in the first half of this year, when Dunamu reported revenue of ₩408.1 billion, down 49.1%, and operating profit down 79.7%. Upbit still anchors Korean crypto trading, but its owner’s earnings now move almost one-for-one with a market that has cooled since the third quarter of last year.
Two decisions will shape the next set of numbers. Naver Financial’s shareholders are scheduled to meet on Nov. 19, with the share swap date delayed to Dec. 31, while the FSS weighs sanctions over the November breach.
