The first investment destinations of SK Square, which will be launched as an information and communication technology (ICT) investment company, have been decided to be a cryptocurrency exchange ‘Korbit’ and a digital human developer ‘On Mind’.
On the 29th, SK Square announced, “At the same time as the re-listing, it will invest about 90 billion won in Korbit, an cryptocurrency exchange, and 8 billion won in Onmind, a subsidiary of Neptune, a subsidiary of Kakao Games.”
◇ As the 2nd largest shareholder of ‘Korbit’, the 4th largest cryptocurrency exchange… “NFT in the metaverse”
According to the revision of the Enforcement Decree of the Specific Financial Information Act of the Financial Services Commission, Korbit is the second virtual asset business that has been reported and accepted by the Korea Financial Information Analysis Institute, and is one of the four largest cryptocurrency exchanges in Korea that can trade in won along with Upbit.
With this investment, SK Square will secure a 35% stake and become the second largest shareholder of Korbit after NXC.
With this investment as an opportunity, SK Square and Korbit plan to further advance their services to create an environment where more virtual asset investors can obtain more accurate and reliable investment information and trade safely.
In addition to virtual asset trading services, synergies are also expected in the Metaverse business cooperation with Korbit, which operates a non-fungible token (NFT) trading market and Metaverse virtual asset exchange ‘Korbit Town’.
Lastly, cooperation to expand Korbit’s original virtual asset exchange business will also expand. Korbit plans to introduce SK’s phone number-based integrated login service and DID (Decentralized Identifiers)-based simple authentication service.
Through this, it is expected to establish a user environment where investors can conveniently use Korbit, and to expand promotions through various marketing channels such as SK’s T membership and T universe.
◇On Mind, a subsidiary of Neptune, affiliated with Kagem, possessing digital human technology.
OnMind is a privately held company established in April 2020 and incorporated as a subsidiary of Neptune under Kakao Games in November of the same year.
Onmind is a maker of 3D digital human ‘Sua’. SK Square decided to acquire a 40% stake, including common stock and convertible preferred stock.
Sua is the first real-time digital human in Korea, and can be interactive in real time. OnMind is expanding partnerships and cooperation with Unity and AMD based on this technology.
SK Square said, “Like Korbit, on-mind investment is expected to create great business synergies with metaverse platform ifland and content platform flow and wave. I can implement an avatar or create an attractive virtual influencer.”
◇SK Square “Considering plans to convert metaverse virtual goods into cash”
SK Square has built a more robust metaverse ecosystem that encompasses SK’s Ifland, Flow Wave, and One Store by convergence of Onmind’s 3D digital human technology with Korbit’s virtual asset exchange, NFT trading market, and Metaverse Exchange. presented a blueprint.
In addition, SK Square is planning to create an economic system in which users trade various virtual goods such as avatars, virtual spaces, sound sources, and videos within this metaverse ecosystem, and to establish an environment where virtual goods can be converted into cash at any time by linking with the virtual asset exchange. is also being considered.
Poong-Young Yoon, Chief Investment Officer (CIO) of SK Square, said, “SK Square will be reborn as an attractive investment company by continuously investing in ICT areas that will lead future innovation, such as blockchain and metaverse.”
