Dunamu, the Seoul-based fintech firm that operates South Korea's main cryptocurrency alternate 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 enhancing usability and accessibility on Web3.
The community delivers quick efficiency with 1-second block occasions, helps present Ethereum-based growth via EVM compatibility, and advantages from steady upgrades by way of an open supply ecosystem led by the Optimism Basis.
The chain is already dwell on testnet, with virtually 100 million transactions processed as of Could 3, and is anticipated to launch on mainnet quickly.
Pursuant to a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding between Dunamu and the Optimism Basis. GIWA Chain is anticipated 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 supplies institutional-level help resembling system monitoring and a backup sequencer for failover.
“Working our personal GIWA Chain is a strategic transfer for Upbit. Our aim is to offer our institutional and retail customers with a degree of efficiency and compliance that matches our present platform,” stated Dunamu Chief Working Officer Minseok Jeong, noting that Optimism Basis's self-managed tier permits the corporate to take care of operational management whereas constructing a confirmed infrastructure to help their scalability and governance wants.
Upbit serves over 13 million registered customers. In response to CoinGecko information, the alternate ranked second on the planet by cumulative spot buying and selling quantity from 2020 to 2024.
“What we constantly hear from the most important exchanges and institutional buyers is that they wish to personal somewhat than lease the chains their customers commerce on,” stated Jing Wang, director of the Optimism Basis.
“Upbit going dwell with OP Enterprise Self-Managed is a transparent sign about the place the trade 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 stated.
Dunamu launched Upbit in 2017 and shortly grew to develop into South Korea's high alternate. The corporate is within the means of merging with Naver Monetary, and initially aimed to finish the merger in 2026, creating a big fintech firm value roughly 20 trillion Korean received (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 via, GIWA shall be positioned because the spine of a giant fintech ecosystem, with plans already underway to combine the Korean won-backed stablecoin into real-world funds.
