Korean Game Giants Book Billions-Won Crypto Losses in Q1 2026

South Korean game companies including Netmarble, Neowiz, Wemade, and NC took billions of won in crypto losses in the first quarter of 2026, according to the companies’ filings with South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service (FSS). The disclosures, summarized in a Q1 2026 virtual asset holdings for South Korean game firms, came as bitcoin continued its slide from a late-2025 peak.

Each company held crypto for a different reason and each took a different route when prices fell. Netmarble sold off virtually all of its bitcoin and ether and recorded the largest net disposal loss of the four. Neowiz trimmed its position. Wemade held its bitcoin and rotated into stablecoins. NC, locked in by a strategic investment, could not sell and absorbed the value loss in place.

Four Game Companies, Four Different Reactions

The Q1 2026 disclosures filed with South Korea’s FSS show “large changes” in the virtual asset holdings of major game companies including Netmarble, Neowiz, Kakao Games, and NC, according to The Chosun Daily. The Chosun Daily’s report goes deep on four of those names. Each company held crypto for a different reason, and each took a different route when prices fell.

Netmarble’s Q1 read like a clearance sale of its virtual asset holdings. The company sold 13 different virtual asset types and recorded a net disposal loss of about 3.7 billion won after offsetting some gains. Neowiz took a more measured cut, with net disposal losses of about 670 million won on its bitcoin and ether sales. Wemade held its bitcoin but added to its stablecoin holdings, while NC could not sell at all because of a lockup on its Mysten Labs tokens.

The full picture, side by side, sits in the table below. The numbers come from each company’s own FSS filings, summarized by The Chosun Daily.

Netmarble Sold Almost Everything

Netmarble’s first quarter was a broad sell-off of its virtual asset holdings. The company sold 13 different virtual asset types, according to The Chosun Daily’s read of the FSS filings. The list included bitcoin (BTC), ethereum (ETH), Tether (USDT), and KAIA, alongside nine other tokens. Netmarble disposed of 37.50 bitcoin and 164.19 ethereum, leaving 0.01 BTC and 0.49 ETH at quarter-end.

The bitcoin alone cost Netmarble about 836 million won in disposal losses. The Tether sales, totaling 4,565,152 USDT, cost another 1.987 billion won. KAIA, of which Netmarble sold 30 million tokens, added 449 million won in losses.

Disposal losses on the rest of the tokens pushed Netmarble’s gross virtual asset loss to about 3.9 billion won for the quarter. Some sales generated gains, and the net disposal loss came in at about 3.7 billion won. The crypto drag sat next to a different operating story. Netmarble’s first-quarter 2026 financial results showed $444.97 million in revenue and $36.22 million in operating profit, with year-over-year growth in both. Net profit reached $144.02 million, a jump the company attributed mainly to gains on asset disposals other than the crypto sales.

Most of the sell-off happened inside a single quarter, with 13 different tokens changing hands. The pattern matches a company actively reducing its crypto exposure rather than passively waiting out the market. The 0.01 BTC and 0.49 ETH left in the treasury at quarter-end amount to a near-complete exit from bitcoin and ether.

Netmarble’s $144.02 million net profit leaned on gains from other asset disposals, not on the crypto sales. The 3.7 billion won in net crypto losses was a discrete drag on an otherwise profitable quarter.

Neowiz Trimmed Its Position

Neowiz took a smaller, more measured cut. The company sold 16 bitcoin and 169 ethereum in Q1 2026, recording losses of about 433 million won on the bitcoin and about 233 million won on the ether, per The Chosun Daily. After the sales, Neowiz held 78 bitcoin and 437 ethereum at quarter-end.

Neowiz’s net loss on virtual asset disposals came in at about 670 million won for the quarter, after offsetting gains on some sales. Netmarble’s comparable net loss was about 3.7 billion won. The company kept the bulk of its crypto exposure intact, with the sales looking more like a trim than a full exit. The remaining 78 bitcoin and 437 ethereum still represent a meaningful position for a game publisher.

Neowiz’s remaining bitcoin and ether balances, 78 and 437 respectively, sit on the balance sheet at the end of Q1 2026. The Chosun Daily report covers the Q1 sales and losses, not the company’s stated plan for the rest of the year.

Wemade Held and Rotated Into Stablecoins

Wemade did not sell its bitcoin. The book value of the bitcoin it held fell by about 800 million won over Q1 2026, from 18.823 billion won in the previous quarter to 18.008 billion won, per The Chosun Daily. Holdings stayed at 245 BTC, down just one coin from the prior quarter. The 1 BTC change was routine wallet activity, not a sale.

The book value of Wemade’s KAIA holdings fell from 1.944 billion won to 1.284 billion won over the same period. The book value of other altcoins held by Wemade also fell, per The Chosun Daily. The KAIA drop was the second-largest virtual asset move on Wemade’s books after the bitcoin one.

Wemade’s response to the slump was to rotate into stablecoins. The company increased the share of Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC) in its crypto portfolio, per The Chosun Daily. The move reduced the share of price-sensitive tokens on the balance sheet. Stablecoin holdings do not gain with bitcoin, but they do not lose value when the broader market slides either.

The strategy kept Wemade from booking any disposal losses in Q1 2026, with the bitcoin and KAIA declines left on the books as paper losses. Stablecoins, which are designed to hold a steady value, made up a larger share of the crypto portfolio at the end of the quarter.

NC Was Locked In

NC, the holding company formerly known as NCSoft, could not sell its crypto. The company holds SUI, NS, and DEEP tokens it received in return for an investment in the U.S. blockchain company Mysten Labs, per The Chosun Daily. Some of those tokens are tied up in sale restrictions, a so-called lockup. NC had no choice but to absorb the drop in book value as prices fell.

The biggest hit was on SUI. The value of NC’s SUI holdings fell from about 24.6 billion won at the end of Q4 2025 to about 15.6 billion won at the end of Q1 2026, with NS and DEEP also falling in value.

• SUI: book value fell from about 24.6 billion won to 15.6 billion won
• NS: value decreased by about 23 million won
• DEEP: value decreased by about 460 million won

The lockup on NC’s tokens means the company could not realize those losses or trim the position through Q1 2026. The forced hold is different from Wemade’s voluntary ride through the slump, with NC unable to sell while Wemade chose not to. The Mysten Labs investment anchors the company’s crypto exposure. The Q1 picture is the inverse of Netmarble’s, where the company sold into a falling market to cut its exposure entirely.

The SUI drop was NC’s largest single virtual asset change in Q1 2026, per The Chosun Daily’s read of the FSS filings. Wemade’s bitcoin book value decline was 800 million won. NC’s locked-in exposure to a single token produced the biggest won-denominated hit of the four.

NC’s Q1 crypto picture is driven entirely by a single token, SUI. The bitcoin and ether sales at Netmarble and Neowiz locked in realized losses; the SUI value drop on NC’s books is unrealized.

Bitcoin’s October Peak and June Plunge

The backdrop to all four companies’ Q1 2026 crypto positions is bitcoin’s own path through the same window. Bitcoin surpassed $120,000 for the first time in July 2025 and hit an all-time high of $126,110 in October 2025, per The Chosun Daily. The won value of one bitcoin at the peak was about 192 million won.

Bitcoin then turned lower, with the slide extending into Q1 2026 and beyond. By June 4, 2026, the price had plunged to $60,429, with the won equivalent at about 92 million won. The Q1 disclosures were filed in the middle of that slide, before the June low. The Chosun Daily reported the four companies’ filings on June 22, 2026.

• Bitcoin surpassed $120,000 for the first time in July 2025
• Bitcoin hit an all-time high of $126,110 in October 2025 (about 192 million won)
• Bitcoin plunged to $60,429 by June 4, 2026 (about 92 million won)

The bitcoin price action shapes how much unrealized loss sits on the four companies’ books at the end of Q1 2026. Wemade, which held its bitcoin, and NC, which could not sell, are sitting on the full bitcoin-era decline for their unhedged positions. A separate Q1 2026 gaming revenue report covers the broader industry results from the same filings window.

Why They Bought Crypto in the First Place

The four companies did not buy crypto as a speculative punt. The Chosun Daily report frames the holdings as a corporate push to build blockchain-based game ecosystems and diversify corporate financial portfolios, the same language used to describe the broader Korean game industry’s crypto bet. Netmarble, Neowiz, Wemade, and NC each had a stated reason for holding virtual assets beyond price gains. The Q1 2026 losses are the cost of those strategic bets meeting a market that went the other way.

Many game companies hold virtual assets more for strategic linkage with the blockchain ecosystem than for price gains.

An unnamed game industry official, quoted in The Chosun Daily, said the burden of falling appraised values may continue “for the time being.” A market recovery, the same source said, could reconnect the tokens to corporate value and investment revenue. The four companies’ Q1 2026 disclosures will be the next read on whether that burden has eased or deepened.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which South Korean game companies reported crypto losses in Q1 2026?

Netmarble, Neowiz, Wemade, and NC, per their FSS filings summarized in The Chosun Daily. Kakao Games was also named in the report as showing large changes to its virtual asset holdings, though the article did not break out its specific figures.

How much did Netmarble lose selling its bitcoin and ether?

Netmarble’s net disposal loss on virtual asset sales came in at about 3.7 billion won in Q1 2026, after gains on some sales offset part of the gross 3.9 billion won loss. The company disposed of 37.50 bitcoin (leaving 0.01 BTC) and 164.19 ethereum (leaving 0.49 ETH) over the quarter.

Why did NC hold SUI, NS, and DEEP through the slump?

NC received the tokens in return for an investment in U.S. blockchain company Mysten Labs, and some of the holdings are tied up in sale restrictions known as a lockup. As a result, NC could not exit its position and absorbed the full drop in book value, with SUI alone falling from about 24.6 billion won to 15.6 billion won.

How far did bitcoin fall between October 2025 and June 2026?

Bitcoin hit an all-time high of $126,110 in October 2025 after first crossing $120,000 in July. By June 4, 2026, it had plunged to $60,429, per The Chosun Daily. The Korean won value of one bitcoin fell from about 192 million won at the peak to about 92 million won.

Why did Korean game firms buy crypto in the first place?

Game companies that invested in virtual assets cited building blockchain-based game ecosystems and diversifying their corporate financial portfolios, per The Chosun Daily. The four companies’ Q1 2026 filings, summarized in the article, do not include any stated exit plan for the holdings.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Cryptocurrency markets are highly volatile, and past performance is not indicative of future results. Always consult a qualified financial professional before making investment decisions. Figures cited are accurate as of the date of publication, June 22, 2026.