DCG Invests in South Korean Streami

The terms of the deal also include an exclusive regional partnership between Streami and Genesis, a digital asset lender and DCG subsidiary.

article-image

Streami co-founder and CEO Junhaeng Lee; Source: GOPAX

share

key takeaways

  • Streami’s GOPAX exchange pushes approximately $135 million in volume a day
  • Seoul-based bank Shinhan led Streami’s fundraising round

Institutional interest in Korea’s digital asset infrastructure continues to grow as Digital Currency Group (DCG) announced today it had made a strategic investment in Streami, the parent company of Korea’s GOPAX exchange. Seoul-based bank Shinhan led Streami’s fundraising round.

“We expanded our investment in Streami because of their fantastic team and the incredible potential of the digital asset market in South Korea,” Barry Silbert, the Founder and CEO of DCG said in a statement. “Streami provides the critical foundation for this market to scale rapidly, and our investment will fuel its position as the most trusted digital asset platform in Korea.”

Streami’s GOPAX exchange pushes approximately $135 million in volume a day, according to CoinGecko.

Building for South Korea

This is the second major investment into digital asset infrastructure led by an incumbent bank in Korea. In March, Bithumb, which sees $4.6 billion in volume a day according to CoinGecko, attracted investment interest from Morgan Stanley. Morgan Stanley’s interest in Bithumb was also driven by new local regulation that requires exchanges to partner with incumbent banks for money laundering and tax compliance reasons. 

“After observing the Bitfinex hack and China’s cryptocurrency crackdown in 2016, we decided to build the reliable cryptocurrency market infrastructure that South Korea needed, starting with an exchange,” Streami co-founder and CEO Junhaeng Lee said in a statement.

The terms of the deal also include an exclusive regional partnership between Streami and Genesis, a digital asset lender and DCG subsidiary.

Recently one of Korea’s major incumbent banks, KB, launched an institutional digital asset custody solution called KODA which Genesis would compete with. 

Lobbying for change

Streami has been quite active in regulatory affairs in Korea. In 2018 when the government proposed a harsh set of laws that would see most digital asset exchanges and stakeholders banned under anti-money laundering and tax laws, Streami led an industry coalition to lobby for change.  

With all the institutional interest in South Korea’s digital asset ecosystem, one might wonder what exactly are Korean’s trading? CoinGecko data shows that the Bitcoin-Korean won trading pair has approximately $1.46 billion per day in volume across all exchanges in-country.

Unlike many exchanges in the West, bitcoin doesn’t lead the way. At Upbit and Bithumb, ethereum classic leads in volume by a sharp margin. 

Tags

Upcoming Events

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

morpho 2 graphic.png

Research

Utilizing a ‘DeFi Mullet’ approach, Coinbase’s Bitcoin-backed loans integration with Morpho demonstrates a powerful blueprint for CEXs to monetize dormant assets by expanding adoption of wrapped products (cbBTC, USDC) while also supporting native and/or preferred DeFi ecosystems (Base) which can further lead to downstream growth in onchain liquidity and increased utilization of the related assets.

article-image

The platform also rolled out 13 tokenized funds for institutions on the Connect platform

article-image

The company’s expanded lineup introduces new ETF products, as more and more issuers get into crypto funds

article-image

President Donald Trump announced a 10% levy on almost all goods and additional tariffs on so-called “worst offending” countries

article-image

Solana may be in “recomposition” mode, as new protocols put usefulness ahead of mere virality

article-image

The stablecoin issuer will have to contend with bigger players and the interest rates environment

article-image

The president reportedly was still working on his tariff policy plans late Tuesday evening