Coinone, South Korea's third-largest cryptocurrency exchange, is planning to sell its major shareholder's stake and is in talks with overseas cryptocurrency exchanges regarding potential investments.

Coinone, South Korea's third-largest cryptocurrency exchange, is exploring the sale of a portion of its shares, including those held by its chairman and largest shareholder, Cha Myung-hoon. Reports indicate that Coinone is considering various options to sell Cha's total 53.4% ​​stake, including his personal 19.14% and a 3.43% held by his affiliated company, The One Group. Coinone stated that it has communicated with several major overseas cryptocurrency exchanges and local financial institutions regarding equity investments, but "no concrete decisions have been made yet." The report notes that Cha recently returned to the company's management team after resigning as CEO and taking a four-month hiatus, and his return may be related to preparations for the share sale and a larger-scale transaction. Furthermore, the shares held by the second-largest shareholder, local gaming company Com2Us (which accumulated a 38.42% stake between 2021 and 2022), may also be included in the potential transaction. Financially, Coinone has been consistently losing money in recent quarters, with a book value of approximately 75.2 billion won (about US$52.2 million) at the end of the third quarter, lower than its previous valuation of approximately 94.4 billion won. According to industry insiders, Coinbase may be interested in participating in this equity transaction, and its executive team is expected to visit South Korea this week to hold talks with Coinone and other local companies. However, Coinone has not yet officially confirmed any completed transactions. (TheBlock)