SK Group’s IT investment arm to launch its own crypto token this year

SK Square is planning to launch its own crypto by the end of 2022. The company is the IT investment arm that was spun off from SK Telecom in November 2021 and is an affiliate of SK Group, South Korea’s third-largest conglomerate by revenue.

SK Square has already set up a blockchain task force that will oversee the planned crypto project, according to Coindesk. The crypto will first be first issued and under the purview of the country’s top 10 conglomerates.

The crypto will be used to integrate the virtual economies of the group’s various businesses. The token will be used in SK Telecom’s metaverse platform Ifland, SK Planet’s membership program, and 11ST’s e-commerce services.

SK Square has already invested KRW 100 billion (US$82 million) in blockchain and metaverse projects. However, the company is planning to ramp up its spending and will spend 2 trillion won ($1.6 billion) in the next three years on blockchain and semiconductors projects.

“This will mark the first year when SK Square creates new shareholder value by investing in chips and blockchain, the fields that we are familiar with and we see a high growth potential,” Park Jung-ho, CEO and vice-chairman of SK Square, said.

SK Square has already made investments in South Korea’s semiconductor sectors. The company is the largest shareholder of SK Hynix, the country’s second-largest chipmaker after Samsung.

The company also made investments in the crypto sector. In November 2021, it acquired a 35 percent stake in the crypto exchange Korbit for 90 billion won ($75 million).

SK Inc. the group’s holding company owns 30 percent of SK Square and is its largest shareholder. SK Inc. also owns 30 percent of the group’s telecommunications firm SK Telecom.

SK Inc. reported KRW 98 trillion in revenues for 2021. This makes the holding firm South Korea’s the third-largest conglomerate in terms of revenue after Samsung and Hyundai.

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