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Kakao Piccoma, the Japanese subsidiary of South Korea’s Kakao Corp., has acquired the Sakura Exchange BitCoin cryptocurrency exchange firm. The purchase will help Kakao achieve its goal of global expansion into blockchain and Web 3.0 services.
According to Korea Economic Daily, Kakao Piccoma acquired more than a 50% controlling stake in SEBC on April 1st. Although the exact size of the stake or value of the deal was never disclosed, the purchase effectively made the Korean company the largest shareholder in the Japanese crypto exchange firm.
This major acquisition will allow Kakao Corp. to build a blockchain ecosystem within its community that already has divisions offering digital coin and non-fungible token (NFT) services. Kakao Group launched its crypto wallet service called Klip last year, and this allowed its 50 million users to easily access 11 crypto and digital assets, including Kakao’s own Klay token.
Kakao first jumped into the blockchain business in 2018 when it added its blockchain unit called Ground X. The following year, the company followed it up with the introduction of its own cryptocurrency and blockchain development platform - Klaytn. Its latest activity related to the blockchain took place only late last year when it established Krust in Singapore, which took charge of the Klaytn project that was being handled by Ground X to further develop its blockchain business on the international level.
Business observers believe that with Kakao Piccoma’s acquisition of SEBC, it will be able to successfully widen its business scope to include Web 3.0, which is a decentralized internet that provides customized services based on blockchain and digital tokens.
Meanwhile, as mentioned in Business Korea, Kakao Piccoma operates the largest webtoon service provider in Japan - the Piccoma. The company is really popular in Japan and dominates the digital comics business there.
With Sakura Exchange Bitcoin now partly under its wing, the Korean company is expected to integrate digital assets and blockchain technology and services for aggressive expansion in the Web 3.0 space. Sakura Exchange Bitcoin was launched in May 2017 and is currently headquartered in Osaka, Japan.
