A startup aims to list on the KOSDAQ Exchange as the first South Korean cryptocurrency player.
The first publicly listed company in South Korea may be a crypto and blockchain startup that is seeking for the KOSDAQ, the local stock exchange.
The company, Blocko, has chosen Shinhan Financial Investment, one of the leading financial institutions in the country, to oversee the listing procedure as it prepares to conduct an initial public offering (IPO).
Blocko intends to finish listing on the KOSDAQ (Korean Securities Dealers Automated Quotations) by the end of 2023, according to News1.
The company has previously received funding from organizations including Shinhan Bank and steel titan POSCO. Earlier last year, Daehong Communications, a marketing subsidiary of retail behemoth Lotte Group, increased its investment by USD 3.6 million. The company's corporate worth might be as high as $64.5 million, according to some estimates.
According to Kim Jong-hwan, the CEO of the business, Blocko is planning to collaborate with several Lotte Group affiliates on a variety of non-fungible token (NFT) and security token offering (STO)-related products.
CJ is another conglomerate sponsor; its IT services division CJ OliveNetworks hired Blocko last year to create an NFT-based ticketing solution that can combat counterfeiting. Additionally, CJ has discussed its intentions to utilize NFT technology across "the entertainment business in the future."
Crypto’s Long Journey to the KOSDAQ
Few industries in South Korea were making profits on the same scale before the start of the crypto winter, but the country's crypto industry has risen rapidly in recent years.
The two largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the nation, Upbit and Bithumb, have both drawn significant attention from the financial markets. Several financial analysts have suggested that Upbit may be considering a Nasdaq listing.
The South Korean markets regulator has classed Upbit as a "very large" firm, placing it on par with companies like Samsung and LG. Thus, the majority of people concur that the company is simply too big for an IPO on the KOSDAQ.
Other, smaller cryptocurrency exchanges have also been mentioned as potential KOSDAQ IPO prospects. However, since the beginning of the crypto winter, discussion of such intentions has fast died down as most crypto players have reported disappointing quarterly profits.
One of the so-called "first-generation" blockchain businesses in South Korea was founded in 2014 and is called Blocko. The company posted net profits of just under USD 500 million in net profit last year, along with USD 1.6 billion in sales.