Coinone (코인원) — Korea CEX mid-tier / NH NongHyup Bank real-name account / independent overview

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This entry sits under exchanges index. Read it against Korea's 5 major CEX regimes compared — Upbit / Bithumb / Coinone / Korbit / GOPAX for the Korea peer / regulatory context, Upbit / Bithumb for the closest top-tier peers, and global CEX top 10 comparison for the broader system / market boundary.

Founded 2014-08 · Korea spot market #3 (estimated around 3%) · NH 농협은행 real-name account · one of the 1 co-founders of DAXA (established 5 社) · history of management going through judicial proceedings in the 2022 listing-bribery (청탁) prosecution case

1. Corporation / Shareholders

Trade name: 주식회사 코인원 (Coinone Inc.)
Founded: 2014-08
Head office location: 서울특별시 영등포구 (Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul)
Founder: 차명훈 (Daniel Lim, Cha Myung-hoon) — known as one of the 1 leading figures of Korea’s early crypto industry (Coinone co-founder / CEO)
Major shareholders:
- 차명훈 founder’s stake at the core
- 데일리금융그룹 (Daily Financial Group, early investor) → later shifts in shareholding ratio
- 이상준 and other Korean IT / financial investors
- reports of investment consideration by the 카카오뱅크 side (2018–2019) and other histories of exploring multiple strategic capital relationships
- detailed shareholder composition partially disclosed due to non-listed status
IPO consideration: no direct announcement, but a follow could be possible if Bithumb’s KOSDAQ listing push succeeds

2. Registration / License status (Korean system)

가상자산사업자 (VASP) registration: registered with FIU (2021-09 Korea’s 1 -th registration class)
ISMS / ISMS-P certification: holds KISA ISMS-P
실명확인 입출금 계정 (real-name account): contracted with NH 농협은행 (NH NongHyup Bank)
- NH 농협은행 is one of Korea’s 5 major banks (1 ), and Bithumb also contracts with the same NH 농협은행 → among Korea’s 5 major CEXes, NH 농협은행 is the only bank contracting with 2 社 (Bithumb + Coinone)
- for the detailed system see Korea's 5 major CEX regimes compared — Upbit / Bithumb / Coinone / Korbit / GOPAX

3. Supported currencies

KRW spot market (legal as one of Korea’s 5 major CEXes, 1 )
Number of supported tokens: 200+ (a mid-scale lineup alongside Upbit / Bithumb)
Centered on BTC / ETH / major altcoins, with active support for Korean tokens such as Klaytn-family / WEMIX / XPLA
Listing review: DAXA common criteria + Coinone’s own criteria

4. Scope of business

Spot trading (centered on KRW pairs)
Derivatives / margin trading: not offered under Korean VASP regulation
Staking: limited service (Cross: historical provision of staking / lending-related products, scaled back under regulatory constraints)
Fiat deposits: only via the NH 농협은행 real-name account
Coinone Pro: UI / API for professional traders
Cross overseas remittance: an overseas remittance service mediated by crypto (partial rollout)

Korea spot market share: approximately 3% (a #3 position behind Upbit 70% / Bithumb 25%, a mid-tier #3 ahead of Korbit / GOPAX)
24h volume: $20–200M (linked to market volatility)
Customer base: centered on Korean residents (full KYC implemented)

6. History / Major incidents

Period	Item
2014-08	Coinone founded (co-founded by 차명훈 / Daniel Lim)
2015	early track record in Korean BTC margin trading
2016	leading position in Korean ETH trading
2017	established a top 3 position during the Korean crypto boom
2018	strategic investment by 데일리금융그룹 (Daily Financial Group) and others
2019	shift in 데일리금융 shareholding ratio, continued independent management
2021-03	Korea’s 특정금융정보법 enacted, VASP registration system begins
2021-09	completed VASP registration with FIU (Korea’s 1 -th registration class)
2022	Coinone management’s listing-bribery (청탁) suspicion case; Korean prosecutors indicted multiple parties for listing bribery (청탁) / violation of the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes (특정경제범죄법). Founder / CEO 차명훈 also became a subject of the judicial proceedings. A symbolic case of Korean CEX listing-governance problems
2023	participated as one of the 1 co-founders of the DAXA self-regulatory body (established 5 社). Building out DAXA common listing criteria in the wake of the listing-bribery case became an industry-wide issue
2023–2024	judicial proceedings continued, management structure rebuilt
2024-07	가상자산이용자보호법 enacted, user-protection framework built out
2024–2026	maintained mid-tier #3 position, continued independent management

7. Strategic developments

Independent management: unlike Upbit (Kakao-affiliated / Hana Financial / Hanwha, etc.) / Korbit (SK Square) / GOPAX (partial Binance involvement), it continues founder-led independent management. This means both the advantage of independence and the limit of capital-raising capacity at the same time
NH 농협은행 relationship: with the situation of sharing the same bank with Bithumb, the negotiation over AML/CFT responsibility-sharing on the NH 농협은행 side remains an ongoing issue
DAXA participation: standardizing listing criteria within DAXA together with Upbit / Bithumb / Korbit / GOPAX. Played a leading role in the governance rebuild after the 2022 listing-bribery case
2024 User Protection Act response: contributing to the user-protection fund, strengthening surveillance of unfair trading, rebuilding internal controls
Major listing venue for Korean tokens: continues as a major listing venue for Korean L1 / L2 tokens such as Klaytn / its successor Kaia, WEMIX, XPLA
Cross remittance service: an overseas remittance service mediated by crypto, adapting to regulatory-environment changes

8. Positioning within the industry

Coinone, as a **mid-tier CEX at Korea spot market #3 **, holds a middle position between the top 2 (Upbit / Bithumb) and the lower tier (Korbit / GOPAX). It carries both the individuality of independent management and the burden of the governance problem of the 2022 listing-bribery case at the same time.

Within Korea's 5 major CEX regimes compared — Upbit / Bithumb / Coinone / Korbit / GOPAX, the unique positioning of a founder-led independent player serves to maintain the structural diversity of the Korean CEX industry. The building-out of DAXA common listing criteria since the 2022 case also has a Coinone-led aspect, and its contribution to lifting industry-wide governance cannot be ignored.

cex-upbit-korea — Korea #1
cex-bithumb-korea — Korea #2 (most important cross-link, same NH 농협은행 bank)
cex-korbit-korea — Korea #4 (peer)
cex-gopax-korea — Korea #5 (peer)
korea-cex-five-pillars-comparison — Korea 5 major CEX system comparison
global-cex-top10-comparison — Global CEX top 10
global-vasp-regulatory-comparison-matrix — Global VASP regulatory comparison
INDEX — Exchange domain index

Sources

公開情報整理 (Coinone 공식 IR / 회사 소개 페이지, coinone.co.kr)
公開情報整理 (FSC / FIU 가상자산사업자 등록 公開リスト)
公開情報整理 (KISA ISMS-P 인증 발표)
公開情報整理 (NH 농협은행 실명확인 입출금 계정 보도)
公開情報整理 (DAXA 자율규제 협의체 발표)
公開情報整理 (Coinone 경영진 검찰 기소 2022 보도, 코인데스크 코리아 / 한겨레 / 매일경제 / Korea Herald)
公開情報整理 (2022 韓国 CEX 上장 청탁 사건 검찰 수사 결과 발표)
公開情報整理 (가상자산이용자보호법 2024-07 시행 관련 보도)