Dunamu CEO vows to export K-finance, urging regulatory latitude
| Dunamu’s Chief Brand & Impact Officer Yoon Seon-joo (left) holds a keynote session with Eric Trump, executive vice president of The Trump Organization, who virtually joined the Upbit D Conference 2025 at a hotel in Seoul on Tuesday. (Dunamu) |
Eric Trump, executive vice president of the Trump Organization and son of the US president, said digital assets are quickly becoming the backbone of global finance, urging Asia to move fast during an event hosted by Dunamu, the operator of Korea’s largest cryptocurrency exchange Upbit.
Speaking virtually at Upbit D Conference 2025 in Seoul on Tuesday, Eric Trump described cryptocurrency as “the rails of finance,” moving money “faster, cheaper, safer” than banks and settling “in seconds with virtually no fees.”
He cast his father as “a great catalyst who always believed in cryptocurrency,” adding that “the current administration believes in it” and is “writing clearer rules that other countries can follow.”
Trump said his own embrace of crypto stemmed from what he called the “de-banking” of his family’s businesses, arguing the legacy system is “antiquated,” bound by weekday hours and layered fees, whereas “you can move unlimited value globally in seconds” via the blockchain.
Positioning Asia as a battleground for leadership, Trump said Korea is “doing it the best out of any country in Asia,” while warning that nations slow to say “yes” to digital assets will fall behind.
Trump also teased a return to Korea on two fronts. “We will be there both in terms of the digital asset space and in terms of hard real estate,” noting the Trump Organization has put its name on six buildings in Seoul.
On the same stage, Dunamu CEO Oh Kyoung-suk laid out an expanded plan to make Korea’s crypto depth the basis for broader K-finance exports anchored by stablecoins and purpose-built infrastructure.
“Stablecoins are the gateway to the future of finance and Korea has a chance to lead,” Oh said. “Blockchain is the revolution where Korea can go on the offensive, unlike the internet or AI where we played defense.”
Oh argued that bubbles are part of technological maturation.
“A bubble is a rite of passage in evolution. We need the eye to see the evolution, not just the bubble,” he said, adding that the trust underpinning money is shifting from governments to networks.
“We are entering an era of designing trust, not money, and on that trust layer, Dunamu is building the financial infrastructure of the future.”
Pointing to Dunamu’s scale, Oh said the company is positioned to turn infrastructure into traction.
“Upbit processed 1,740 trillion won ($1.25 trillion) in spot trading last year and now serves 12 million users, placing us among the top platforms globally,” he said. “If Upbit supports a won-based stablecoin, Korea can seize a golden opportunity to expand from Asia to the world.”
He urged policymakers to match the freedom that US firms enjoy. “If the digital-asset businesses permitted in the US are also feasible in Korea, we can compete globally as a national champion.”
At the conference, Dunamu also unveiled “Giwa,” a new Web3 infrastructure brand designed to give developers and users easier access to blockchain services.
An acronym of "Global Infrastructure for Web3 Access," Giwa includes a layer-2 blockchain built on optimistic rollup architecture and an integrated Giwa Wallet app that allows users to store, transfer and manage digital assets across multiple networks, including Ethereum, Polygon and Avalanche.
The company said the platform aims to help Korean developers participate more actively in the global Web3 ecosystem, which has largely been driven outside the country.
Giwa Wallet is currently in demo form, with a full launch planned later, while Giwa Chain remains in testing.
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