Three Samsung affiliates — Samsung Securities, Samsung SDS, and Samsung Card — announced on May 28 the combined acquisition of a 4% stake in Dunamu, the operator of South Korea’s dominant crypto exchange Upbit, for approximately 612.8 billion won or $408 million — the latest in a growing wave of South Korean financial institutions racing to secure strategic positions inside the country’s most valuable digital asset company.

The shares will be purchased from a group of Kakao-affiliated funds including Kakao Investment and Kakao Ventures, at a per-share price of approximately 439,250 won — a valuation implying Dunamu’s total corporate worth at approximately 15.3 trillion won, or roughly $11.1 billion, per Wu Blockchain and…