A new gaming company from South Korea, NCSoft, outbid the other Korean Gaming Giant Nexon in trying to take over control over Bithumb as we are reading more in today’s crypto news.
The deal to acquire a stake in South Korea’s crypto exchange Bithumb, is not finished yet as a new gaming company entered the battle. According to ZDNet Korea, NCSoft is a video game developer that is most known for its Lineage series of gaming titles as it submitted a bid of $596 million for about 66% of the shares in BitHumb that is almost exclusively owned by the Bithumb executive Lee Jung-hoon who is the biggest shareholder in the company as well as another company named DAA which has 30+ stake in the exchange.
The news broke a day ago after widespread reports of the all-but-done-deal with the South Korean gaming giant Nexon with the latter being a part of a business empire that comprises the crypto exchange BitStamp and Korbit. NCSoft’s alleged bid came closer to Lee’s asking price but the possibility of a second bid from Nexon is not ruled out. A few reports from South Korea show that Nexon’s bid was much lower at $458 million.
The video equipment company named Vidente owns about 34% of the shares and was not thought to be looking for a buyer but a report from the Korea times claimed that Vidente has distanced itself from the Nexon bid but hasn’t ruled out making a new rival bid of its own for the platform as Vidente stated:
“We have yet to decide whether to sell our stake in Bithumb Holdings or to acquire an additional stake.”
A Nexon spokesperson declined to discuss more the investment strategies while Bithumb also didn’t respond. The ZDNet Korea reports author added that a third party also expressed interest in the exchange and this third party is actually Huobi which already operates the Huobi Korea trading platform. However, it’s understood that Lee will prefer to avoid selling to an overseas buyer because he wants to get domestic players involved. The same media outlet noted that NCSoft is going out on a limb with its bid as its declared cash assets reach about $1.46BN. however, a blockchain expert stated that the price was already “discounted” and that a deal below $500M will be a “remarkable coup” considering the health of the crypto market.
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