Upbit, Dunamu, Naver, Optimism: the companies behind GIWA
New blockchains usually launch from a whitepaper and a foundation in Zug. GIWA Chain launched from the most powerful corner of Korean finance. Understanding who is actually behind it — the exchange, its parent, the internet giant buying that parent, and the US foundation supplying the tech — explains why this L2 is taken more seriously than the average chain announcement.
Dunamu — the builder
Dunamu Inc. is a Seoul fintech company founded in 2012 that grew from stock-trading apps (Securities Plus) into the operator of Korea's dominant crypto exchange. It is the company actually building GIWA: the chain was announced by Dunamu CEO Oh Kyung-seok at the Upbit D Conference on September 9, 2025, with the testnet already running. For Dunamu, GIWA is the strategic pivot from running a trading venue to owning financial infrastructure — including its stated ambition of a Korean won stablecoin.
Upbit — the distribution
Upbit, launched by Dunamu in October 2017, is South Korea's largest cryptocurrency exchange and one of the largest KRW trading venues in the world. This is what makes GIWA different from a hundred other L2s: it starts with an exchange holding millions of KYC-verified Korean users, and GIWA's identity stack (Dojang attestations, GIWA ID names) is explicitly built to bridge those users on-chain in a regulator-friendly way.
Naver — the new giant in the room
In late 2025, Naver Financial — the fintech arm of Naver, Korea's biggest internet company — agreed to acquire Dunamu in an all-stock deal valued around $10.3 billion, creating a digital-finance heavyweight and putting Korea's dominant search/payments platform and its dominant crypto exchange under one roof. Through 2026 the stock swap has been navigating regulatory review, with the completion deadline extended to December 31, 2026. If it closes, the company behind GIWA will be part of one of the largest fintech groups in Asia — with obvious synergies for a KRW stablecoin.
Optimism Foundation — the technology
GIWA runs on the OP Stack, the open-source rollup framework behind Base and OP Mainnet. Dunamu partnered with the Optimism Foundation to build it, and GIWA is described as the first self-managed enterprise L2 in the ecosystem — Dunamu operates it directly rather than outsourcing to a rollup-as-a-service provider. The chain is designed to join the Superchain, Optimism's network of interoperable L2s.
And where we fit
GIWA.MARKETS is none of the above: an independent community launchpad that started building on GIWA Sepolia the moment the testnet opened. Fair-launch tokens, the on-chain TILES collection, GONGSIN, ROOF POINTS staking, games — the culture layer of the chain, ready to redeploy at mainnet genesis. Start with What is GIWA Chain? if you want the technology side.
FAQ
- Who owns GIWA Chain?
- Dunamu, the operator of Upbit, builds and operates it.
- Is Naver buying Upbit?
- Naver Financial agreed to acquire Dunamu (Upbit's operator) in a ~$10.3B all-stock deal; regulatory review has pushed the deadline to end of 2026.
- Is GIWA.MARKETS affiliated with any of these companies?
- No. It is an independent community project.