{"id":"song-chi-hyung","title":"Song Chi-hyung","content":"**Song Chi-hyung** is the Founder and Chairman of [Dunamu](https://iq.wiki/wiki/dunamu), a fintech and [blockchain](https://iq.wiki/wiki/blockchain) company based in South Korea. [\\[1\\]](#cite-id-x2n57uqmo8b)\n\n## Early Life\n\nSong Chi-hyung was born in 1979 in Gongju, South Korea. He spent most of his childhood in Gongju, until he graduated high school in his home town. [\\[2\\]](#cite-id-ytn7f2xnlyq)\n\n## Education\n\nHe attended Choongnam Science High School and enrolled in Seoul National University in 1998. He graduated with a Bachelor’s degree, majoring in Computer Engineering and taking Economics as a minor in 2006. While studying economics, he planned to pursue an MBA, but he ended up working for a software development company called Danal. [\\[3\\]](#cite-id-mhw8tx6mc6q)\n\n$$widget0 [YOUTUBE@VID](3QlO1BQc9-o)$$\n\n## Military Service\n\nAfter University, Song was required to complete his mandatory military service in the South Korean military. However, Song applied to work at a software development company for 3 years as his military duty, instead of working on the field as a soldier for 2 years. Song’s application to Danal got accepted and he took on the role of developing mobile payment systems. This was when Song started his career as an software developer. [\\[3\\]](#cite-id-mhw8tx6mc6q)\n\nDuring his 3 years of military duty, illegal mobile payments were becoming a bigger issue in South Korea to which Song developed an idea to prevent illegal payment patterns and patented it for use in Korea and China. Song had never considered making a career out of IT systems development, but after working consistently for three years, he found it enjoyable and decided to change his career path. [\\[3\\]](#cite-id-mhw8tx6mc6q)\n\n## Career\n\nAfter completing his military service, he worked for the consulting firm Inomove in 2011, where he developed IT-related projects and found new revenue models for businesses. [\\[3\\]](#cite-id-mhw8tx6mc6q)\n\nIn April 2012, he founded [Dunamu](https://iq.wiki/wiki/dunamu) as a E-book platform. However, he realized that the E-book platform was not as profitable as he had expected and shut it down. Six months later, he created NewsMate, a news aggregation service that collects popular news articles from social media, catching the attention of the IT venture industry. However, competitors quickly arose, forcing Song to look for other business models. [\\[4\\]](#cite-id-iiprd6q0r0s)[\\[5\\]](#cite-id-7khq0c0hvrw)\n\nAfter months of preparation, Song launched stockplus under [Dunamu](https://iq.wiki/wiki/dunamu), a stock market data aggregator, receiving investment from K-view Ventures (currently KakaoVentures) in 2013. [\\[6\\]](#cite-id-p9lpeocwyo)\n\nSince April 2012, Song has been working as the CEO of [Dunamu](https://iq.wiki/wiki/dunamu) and in January 2018 was promoted to the Chairman of the company.\n\nIn 2021, Song Chi-hyung's [Dunamu](https://iq.wiki/wiki/dunamu) and HYBE formed a strategic partnership, exchanging stakes to collaborate on [NFT](https://iq.wiki/wiki/non-fungible-token-nft)-related projects. HYBE acquired a 2.5% interest in [Dunamu](https://iq.wiki/wiki/dunamu), while [Dunamu](https://iq.wiki/wiki/dunamu) obtained a 5.6% stake in HYBE, aiming to explore opportunities in the digital asset market.  [\\[9\\]](#cite-id-yHer5VKkvN)\n\nHe continued to work as both the CEO and the Chairman until December 2021, where he gave up the CEO position.\n\nThroughout his career as CEO and Chairman of [Dunamu](https://iq.wiki/wiki/dunamu), he has appeared as a guest speaker at universities, conferences and has also been the opening speaker for the [Upbit](https://iq.wiki/wiki/upbit) Developer Conferences (UDC) [\\[6\\]](#cite-id-p9lpeocwyo)\n\n## Giwa\n\n[Giwa](https://iq.wiki/wiki/giwa) is an [Ethereum](https://iq.wiki/wiki/ethereum) [Layer 2](https://iq.wiki/wiki/layer-2) network developed by [Dunamu](https://iq.wiki/wiki/dunamu). Officially unveiled on September 9, 2025, at the Upbit Developer Conference, [Giwa](https://iq.wiki/wiki/giwa) launched its Sepolia testnet alongside its announcement. It is engineered for 1-second block times to support latency-sensitive applications, and it retains full compatibility with the [Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)](https://iq.wiki/wiki/ethereum-virtual-machine-evm), enabling existing Solidity contracts and tooling to be reused.\n\nFuture plans include integrating a [stablecoin](https://iq.wiki/wiki/stablecoin) pegged to the Korean won and releasing a native wallet (Giwa Wallet) to streamline user interactions. The name “[Giwa](https://iq.wiki/wiki/giwa)” is both an acronym for *Global Infrastructure for Web3 Access* and a reference to traditional Korean roof tiles, reflecting a blend of modern ambition and cultural symbolism.  [\\[9\\]](#cite-id-7g4Fo4dl1R) [\\[10\\]](#cite-id-3inEHpmR5K)\n\n$$widget0 [YOUTUBE@VID](0Y0uF7IinIc)$$\n\n## News\n\nIn February 2018, Forbes published an article, predicting Song's [crypto](https://iq.wiki/wiki/cryptocurrency) net worth. They predicted that the \"mega rich korean\" had a crypto net worth of around $350 million to $500 million. But in 2020, it was revealed that Song had a crypto holding worth less than 1,000,000 Korean Won stating that the information Forbes shared to the public was false. [\\[7\\]](#cite-id-2793k5wbp9x)[\\[8\\]](#cite-id-g09sjv3pe8b)\n\n## Controversies\n\nIn December 2018, Song Chi-hyung and two Upbit executives faced fraud charges for allegedly inflating trading volumes through a fake corporate account and generating profits of 150 billion won from manipulated [bitcoin](https://iq.wiki/wiki/bitcoin) transactions.\n\nUpbit stated the activities aimed to stabilize the market during its early operations and denied any fraudulent intent. The charges followed a March 2018 raid on Upbit's headquarters as part of broader investigations into [cryptocurrency](https://iq.wiki/wiki/cryptocurrency) exchanges in South Korea. [\\[10\\]](#cite-id-PySwXqbbPO)","summary":"**Song Chi-hyung** is the Founder and Chairman of Dunamu, a South Korean fintech and blockchain company. Born in 1979, he has a background in computer engineering and faced controversies related to fraud charges in 2018.","images":[{"id":"QmPsT5nm1uiwD9yEtCcSyJCRTi1eitUkBQkq85fgER2z6j","type":"image/jpeg, image/png"}],"categories":[{"id":"people","title":"People in crypto"}],"tags":[{"id":"Founders"},{"id":"PeopleInDeFi"}],"media":[{"id":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Y0uF7IinIc","size":"0","name":"0Y0uF7IinIc","type":null,"source":"YOUTUBE"},{"id":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QlO1BQc9-o","size":"0","name":"3QlO1BQc9-o","type":null,"source":"YOUTUBE"}],"metadata":[{"id":"references","value":"[{\"id\":\"x2n57uqmo8b\",\"url\":\"https://www.forbes.com/profile/song-chi-hyung/\",\"description\":\"Forbes on Song Chi-hyung\",\"timestamp\":1682232078302},{\"id\":\"ytn7f2xnlyq\",\"url\":\"https://www.businesspost.co.kr/BP?command=article_view&num=281074\",\"description\":\"Business Post on Song Chi-hyung\",\"timestamp\":1682232173705},{\"id\":\"mhw8tx6mc6q\",\"url\":\"https://zooz.tistory.com/entry/%EC%86%A1%EC%B9%98%ED%98%95-%ED%94%84%EB%A1%9C%ED%95%84-%EB%91%90%EB%82%98%EB%AC%B4-%EC%86%A1%EC%B9%98%ED%98%95-%EC%9D%98%EC%9E%A5-%EB%82%98%EC%9D%B4-%ED%95%99%EB%A0%A5-%EC%86%A1%EC%B9%98%ED%98%95-%EC%9E%AC%EC%82%B0-%EC%97%85%EB%B9%84%ED%8A%B8-%EC%86%A1%EC%B9%98%ED%98%95\",\"description\":\"Zooz on Song Chi-hyung\",\"timestamp\":1682232333582},{\"id\":\"iiprd6q0r0s\",\"url\":\"http://wiki.hash.kr/index.php/%EC%86%A1%EC%B9%98%ED%98%95#cite_note-.EC.86.A1.EC.B9.98.ED.98.95-1\",\"description\":\"Wiki hash on Song\",\"timestamp\":1682232505239},{\"id\":\"7khq0c0hvrw\",\"url\":\"http://wiki.hash.kr/index.php/%EB%91%90%EB%82%98%EB%AC%B4%E3%88%9C\",\"description\":\"Wiki hash on Dunamu\",\"timestamp\":1682232549864},{\"id\":\"p9lpeocwyo\",\"url\":\"https://www.linkedin.com/in/chi-hyung-song-6a261a66/?originalSubdomain=kr\",\"description\":\"Song Chi-hyung Linkedin\",\"timestamp\":1682232579644},{\"id\":\"2793k5wbp9x\",\"url\":\"https://www.forbes.com/sites/gracechung/2018/02/07/song-chi-hyung-upbit-crypto-cryptocurrency-ether-bitcoin/?sh=29c7963d7d81\",\"description\":\"Forbes predicting Song's crypto net worth\",\"timestamp\":1682233670846},{\"id\":\"g09sjv3pe8b\",\"url\":\"https://decenter.kr/NewsView/1YYYYPIFX3\",\"description\":\"Decenter on Song stating that the prediction was inaccurate\",\"timestamp\":1682233732788},{\"id\":\"7g4Fo4dl1R\",\"description\":\"IQ.Wiki: Giwa\",\"timestamp\":1760200906145,\"url\":\"https://iq.wiki/wiki/giwa\"},{\"id\":\"3inEHpmR5K\",\"description\":\"Sophia Hodlberg X Tweet\",\"timestamp\":1760200955012,\"url\":\"https://x.com/sophiaHodlberg/status/1965228895533498479\"}]"},{"id":"linkedin_profile","value":"https://linkedin.com/in/chi-hyung-song-6a261a66"},{"id":"previous_cid","value":"\"https://ipfs.everipedia.org/ipfs/QmStLCcGUpmSURNbxUEgWXGDWaJ3owg7cbTmu69K4wVFaE\""},{"id":"commit-message","value":"\"Docs(Song Chi-hyung): Add section on Giwa, Dunamu's new Ethereum L2 network, and update formatting.\""},{"id":"previous_cid","value":"QmStLCcGUpmSURNbxUEgWXGDWaJ3owg7cbTmu69K4wVFaE"}],"events":[],"user":{"id":"0x8af7a19a26d8fbc48defb35aefb15ec8c407f889"},"author":{"id":"0xa817e9da10923C49C3eD3265Ec9aAb4FB2AF69FE"},"language":"en","version":1,"linkedWikis":{"blockchains":[],"founders":[],"speakers":[]},"operator":{"id":"0x4a2bC97afBF41a2Cbf4b4628F63420682Ff4CF2a"}}