Mirae in Talks to Acquire Korean Crypto Exchange Korbit

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Good Morning,

TradFi is edging further into crypto. Mirae Asset’s talks to acquire Korbit highlight a growing focus on licensed infrastructure, signaling that regulatory access may matter more than market share as institutions prepare to enter the market.

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In Today's Email:

• What Matters: Mirae in Talks to Acquire Korean Crypto Exchange Korbit 🇰🇷 

• Product of the Week: tread.fi Crypto Trading Terminal 🔎 

• Charts: Trust Wallet’s Compensation, $FLOW Drops 40%+ 📊 

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WHAT MATTERS

Mirae in Talks to Acquire Korean Crypto Exchange Korbit

State of play: Mirae Asset Group is reportedly in negotiations to acquire Korbit, South Korea’s fourth largest crypto exchange by volume, in a deal valued between $70M and $100M. 

• The talks are being led by Mirae Asset Consulting, the group’s non financial subsidiary, which has signed an MOU with Korbit’s major shareholders.

• Korbit is majority owned by NXC, the holding firm of gaming giant Nexon, with SK Planet as a significant minority shareholder.

• Despite being South Korea’s first crypto exchange, Korbit now accounts for less than 1% of domestic trading volume.

Why it matters: If completed, it would signal growing interest from traditional finance players in licensed crypto infrastructure as the country moves closer to easing institutional investment restrictions.

Our take: This is a bet on licensed infrastructure, not market share. Regulatory access matters more than current volumes as institutions move closer to crypto.

For builders and investors: Licensed platforms and compliance readiness can matter as much as growth when institutions enter.

PRODUCT OF THE WEEK

tread.fi Crypto Trading Terminal

tread.fi is a crypto trading terminal and OEMS built to optimize execution for advanced and institutional traders. It uses algorithmic execution and smart order routing across multiple exchanges to reduce slippage, limit market impact, and control execution costs.

• Algorithmic execution with advanced order types to automate trades and reduce market impact

• Multi exchange support across CEXs and DEXs with intelligent order routing

• Execution cost transparency and fee optimization, including maker focused strategies

Other cool products:

• Paymento, a crypto payments platform.

• Nimbus, a personalized Web3 portfolio tool for DeFi.

• Flair, a real-time custom data indexing for EVM chains.

• Bloom, a decentralized credit scoring powered by Ethereum and IPFS.

Take a peek at our referral reward at the bottom of this issue. Share this newsletter and receive our list of 500 crypto VC individuals 👇

CHARTS OF THE WEEK

Trust Wallet Begins Compensation After $7M Hack

State of play: Trust Wallet has opened a compensation claims process for users affected by a malicious update to its Chrome browser extension that resulted in about $7M in stolen funds.

• The breach was caused by a leaked Chrome Web Store API key that allowed attackers to bypass internal release checks and publish compromised code.

• The incident impacted hundreds of wallets across Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana.

• A fix was released in version 2.69, and only Chrome extension users who updated before Dec. 26 were affected.

• Changpeng Zhao confirmed that Trust Wallet will fully cover all user losses and warned users to watch out for fake compensation scams.

Our take: Covering losses is the right call, but the hack highlights how browser extensions remain a major security risk.

Flow Probes Security Incident as $FLOW Drops 40%+

State of play: The Flow Foundation is investigating a potential security incident on the mainnet after the FLOW token plunged more than 40% in a sharp selloff. The price fell from around $0.17 to near $0.10 before stabilizing slightly, while trading volume spiked.

• Onchain analysts suggest the incident may stem from a private key compromise that allowed an attacker to mint millions of FLOW and wrapped tokens, with estimated losses of roughly $4M. 

• Upbit and Bithumb suspended FLOW deposits and withdrawals, and the Digital Asset Exchange Alliance issued a transaction risk warning.

• Flow, developed by Dapper Labs, is best known for powering NFT projects like NBA Top Shot.

Our take: This appears to be a private key failure rather than a protocol flaw, but it shows how quickly confidence breaks when token supply integrity is in doubt.

QUICK BITES

• Spot Bitcoin ETFs bleed $782M during Christmas week.

• ETH validator entry queue is almost double the exit queue.

• Uniswap executes 100M UNI burn after governance approval.

• China to let banks pay interest on digital yuan to drive adoption.

• Crypto heavyweights slam proposed 5% wealth tax in California.

• Trust Wallet launches compensation process for $7M hack victims.

• Google search volume for ‘crypto’ craters as 2025 comes to a close.

• Coinbase CEO announces first arrest in India over insider data breach.

• Mirae Asset in talks to buy Korean crypto exchange Korbit for up to $100M.

• Flow blockchain probes security incident as FLOW token plunges over 40%.

NOTEWORTHY READS & MEME

• CC’s read on State of DeFi Options.

• Vict0r’s read on Recap Research 2025.

• DeFi Warhol’s summary on Galaxy’s 26 Predictions for 2026.

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Disclaimer: All the information presented in this publication and its affiliates is strictly for educational purposes only. It should not be construed or taken as financial, legal, investment, or any other form of advice.