Dunamu, the Seoul-based fintech firm that operates South Korea’s main cryptocurrency change Upbit, tapped the Optimism Basis to energy and prolong the GIWA Chain utilizing OP Stack and combine it into Optimism’s OP Enterprise Framework.
Introduced final September, GIWA Chain is an Ethereum layer 2 blockchain targeted on bettering usability and accessibility on Web3.
The community delivers quick efficiency with 1-second block occasions, helps current Ethereum-based growth by way of EVM compatibility, and advantages from steady upgrades through an open supply ecosystem led by the Optimism Basis.
The chain is already dwell on testnet, with nearly 100 million transactions processed as of Might 3, and is predicted to launch on mainnet quickly.
Pursuant to a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding between Dunamu and the Optimism Basis. GIWA Chain is predicted to be the primary introduction to the self-managed tier of OP Enterprise, a framework constructed for operators who need full management over their blockchain environments.
On this construction, Upbit controls the first sequencer and all core networking selections, whereas Optimism gives institutional-level help resembling system monitoring and a backup sequencer for failover.
“Working our personal GIWA Chain is a strategic transfer for Upbit. Our purpose is to supply our institutional and retail customers with a stage of efficiency and compliance that matches our current platform,” mentioned Dunamu Chief Working Officer Minseok Jeong, noting that Optimism Basis’s self-managed tier permits the corporate to keep up operational management whereas constructing a confirmed infrastructure to help their scalability and governance wants.
Upbit serves over 13 million registered customers. Based on CoinGecko information, the change ranked second on the earth by cumulative spot buying and selling quantity from 2020 to 2024.
“What we constantly hear from the most important exchanges and institutional traders is that they wish to personal slightly than lease the chains their customers commerce on,” mentioned Jing Wang, director of the Optimism Basis.
“Upbit going dwell with OP Enterprise Self-Managed is a transparent sign about the place the business goes. It additionally says one thing about the place belief goes. An operator of Upbit’s dimension is just not going to construct on an infrastructure that hasn’t but been confirmed to carry its weight,” he mentioned.
Dunamu launched Upbit in 2017 and rapidly grew to grow to be South Korea’s high change. The corporate is within the technique of merging with Naver Monetary, and initially aimed to finish the merger in 2026, creating a big fintech firm value roughly 20 trillion Korean gained (roughly $13.5 billion), however regulatory delays delayed the shareholder vote and the merger was not accomplished till the second half of 2026.
If the deal goes by way of, GIWA might be positioned because the spine of a big fintech ecosystem, with plans already underway to combine the Korean won-backed stablecoin into real-world funds.