Gamevil acquires Coinone stake to become the cryptocurrency exchange’s second-largest shareholder

Gamevil, a South Korean game developer, revealed on Thursday, Sept. 30, that it is set to become Coinone’s second-largest shareholder. This will happen as it will be acquiring a 22% stake in the said cryptocurrency exchange firm.

Gamevil made the decision to buy 151,218 shares of Coinbase for ₩53.9 billion or around $45.5 million. As per The Korea Herald, the purchase was decided during this week’s board meeting through the firm’s subsidiary, Gamevil Plus. This latest acquisition will bring up the company’s total stake in Coinone to 38%.

“The acquisition is aimed at expanding investments in the cryptocurrency market and finding new business opportunities in the blockchain sectors,” The Seoul-based video game developer and publisher said in a regulatory filing. “With the growing synergy between the game industry and cryptocurrency market, we are expecting a large return on investment in Coinone.”

At any rate, with the deal, Gamevil and Coinone are expected to get into joint business ventures that may include the development of blockchain games and a platform for NFTs or non-fungible tokens. This is because the game firm already formed a group to create an NFT exchange.

Gamevil may become Coinone’s second-largest shareholder, and the crypto exchange’s chief executive officer, Cha Myeong Hoon, will remain the biggest shareholder in the company. He still has a 53% controlling stake as per a company’s official.

The game developer was first established in 2000, and it has gradually developed to become one of the most successful firms in the video gaming sector. Its name is well-known in the field now, and its most popular franchise is its “Summoners War,” a $2 billion action-packed fantasy role-playing game (RPG) with over 100 million Summoners around the world.

Meanwhile, it was in April of this year when Gamevil purchased its first stake in the Coinone crypto exchange. As per Coin Geek, Gamevil bought more than 13% stake in Coinone, and it paid KRW₩31.2 billion or about $27.9 million for the acquisition of 8,474 shares. At that time, the investment came after Nexon, the company’s rival was reported to be considering the purchase of a stake in Bithumb.