Seoul-based fintech company Dunamu, the operator behind South Korea's largest crypto exchange Upbit, launched the GIWA Chain testnet on May 3, 2026.

The network is an Ethereum Layer 2 built on the OP Stack, a modular blockchain framework developed by the Optimism Foundation. GIWA stands for "Global Infrastructure for Web3 Access." Dunamu is the first company to deploy under the Self-Managed tier of OP Enterprise, an institutional service the Optimism Foundation introduced in January 2026 to help fintech companies build production-grade chains in eight to twelve weeks.

Upbit controls 71.6 percent of South Korea's crypto trading market as of mid-2025, according to data from South Korea's Financial Supervisory Service. The exchange has more than 13 million registered users and averaged approximately 4.6 trillion Korean won (roughly $3.36 billion) in daily spot trading volume during the first half of 2025, also per FSS data. By cumulative spot trading volume between 2020 and 2024, Upbit ranks as the second-largest exchange globally.

If GIWA reaches mainnet and becomes the settlement layer for a material share of that activity, it could potentially rank among the busiest Layer 2 networks in the Asia-Pacific region from day one.

What GIWA Chain Does

GIWA is a fully EVM-compatible network, meaning developers can deploy smart contracts written for Ethereum without modification. It targets one-second block times, compared to Ethereum's average of roughly twelve seconds.

The OP Stack framework it runs on supports throughput between 10 and 100-plus megagas per second, a measure of how much computation the network can process simultaneously.

Under the Self-Managed tier, Dunamu controls the primary sequencer, which is the component that orders and batches transactions before they are posted to Ethereum. The Optimism Foundation provides a backup sequencer to maintain continuity if Dunamu's systems fail, along with system monitoring and forty hours of engineering support per year. The relationship is structured as a non-binding memorandum of understanding, not a locked commercial contract, which means both parties retain flexibility to renegotiate or exit.

"What we hear consistently from the largest exchanges is that they want to own the chain their users transact on, not rent it," said Jing Wang, a director at the Optimism Foundation.

Dunamu COO Minseok Jung framed the project in similar terms. "Operating our own GIWA Chain is a strategic move for Upbit," he said. "Our goal is to provide institutional and retail users with performance and compliance consistent with our existing platform."

Context: Exchange-Owned L2s Are Becoming Standard

GIWA is not an isolated experiment. Coinbase launched Base on the OP Stack in August 2023, and that network has accumulated more than $4 billion in total value locked (TVL), making it the largest chain in the OP Superchain. In February 2026, however, Coinbase announced it was transitioning Base to its own consolidated codebase, diverging from the shared OP Stack infrastructure. That move signals a direction exchange-owned L2s may take as they mature and raises questions about the long-term trajectory of chains like GIWA that remain on the shared framework.

Kraken launched its own OP Stack chain called INK in 2025, and Gate.io followed with Gate Layer. GIWA is the first company globally to formalize this approach through the OP Enterprise Self-Managed framework.

Dunamu's financials add a layer of context. The company reported 2025 revenue of approximately 1.56 trillion Korean won (roughly $1.03 billion), a 10 percent drop year-over-year. Operating profit fell 26.7 percent and net profit fell 27.9 percent, declines attributed to a slowdown in crypto trading activity.

Analysts may note that building proprietary infrastructure could help Dunamu diversify revenue beyond transaction fees over the long term, though that is an analytical inference rather than a stated company strategy, and the thesis depends on developer adoption and mainnet performance.

The company is also navigating a pending share-swap merger with Naver Financial, the fintech arm of South Korea's dominant internet company. The deal implies a valuation of approximately 20 trillion won (around $13.5 billion) for Dunamu. Regulatory delays have pushed the expected close to late 2026, and any major corporate restructuring carries the potential to affect the GIWA project's timeline.

Stablecoin Plans and Regulatory Uncertainty

Dunamu has stated its intention to integrate Korean won-backed stablecoins on GIWA for real-world payments. That plan runs directly into an unsettled regulatory question. South Korea's ruling Democratic Party introduced a Digital Asset Basic Act in April 2026 that would impose bank-style reserve requirements on stablecoin issuers.

Whether non-bank entities like Dunamu can legally issue or settle KRW-backed stablecoins remains unresolved pending that legislation. If the Act passes with strict bank-only issuance rules, Dunamu would need a licensed banking partner to make the stablecoin layer viable.

Adding relevant regional context: KBank, Upbit's banking partner, separately piloted Ripple-based international transfers in April 2026. If GIWA integrates KRW stablecoins and KBank continues expanding blockchain integrations, GIWA could serve as a domestic settlement rail bridging onto global payment networks. South Korea is also on track to allow crypto exchange-traded funds on Korea Exchange, and a domestic L2 like GIWA could eventually serve as settlement infrastructure for those products as well.

Separately, South Korean regulators mandated five-minute real-time reconciliations and automated kill switch mechanisms for all domestic exchanges in April 2026. A self-managed settlement chain could, in analytical terms, give Dunamu more direct control over meeting those requirements than relying on a shared public network, though that comparison is an inference rather than a stated regulatory finding.

What Comes Next

GIWA's testnet has processed approximately 100 million transactions as of May 3, though that figure reflects network activity during testing and should not be read as evidence of organic user demand.

Mainnet timing has not been confirmed.

Dunamu plans to present GIWA at Consensus 2026 in Miami, where it will maintain a dedicated booth for global developer outreach.

For exchanges operating in high-volume markets across South Asia and Africa, GIWA offers a reference point: a regulated exchange running a self-managed Layer 2 with domestic stablecoin ambitions. Potential analogues include South Asian platforms such as WazirX and CoinDCX, and African platforms such as VALR and Yellow Card. Most such exchanges, however, lack the capital cushion that made Dunamu's investment viable; Dunamu's roughly $1 billion in annual revenue sits well above what most emerging-market exchanges currently generate.

The OP Enterprise Self-Managed tier lowers the technical bar for that kind of project. The regulatory and capital requirements, however, remain substantially higher in most markets than they are in South Korea.