Korea Small Cap Gem #61: ITCEN Global
The real driver of ITCEN Global’s sales, profits, and value is the Digital Asset and Web3 vertical, run partly through strategic holdings such as the Korea Gold Exchange.
If we annualize the company’s net profit in 1Q 2026, that would suggest annualized net profit of 291 billion won.
If we attach a 10x P/E on annualized net profit of 291 billion won, this would suggest market cap of 2.9 trillion won (136% higher than its current market cap).
ITCENGLOBAL (124500 KS) is the 61st company in my Korea Small Cap Gem series. It currently has a market cap of 1.23 trillion won (US$850 million).
The company breaks down its sales into two main units including precious metals (gold) Web3 and IT services. Web3 unit mainly includes precious metals (such as gold) platform services. IT services includes system integration projects, cloud migration services, enterprise IT consulting, and managed services for public sector and financial clients. ITCEN GLOBAL, formerly known as ITCen Co., Ltd., was founded in 2005 and rebranded in 2025 as part of a broader corporate restructuring and repositioning strategy.
How does the company make money from precious metals (gold) Web3 services? In 2025, Web3 unit accounted for 91.3% of total sales, followed by IT services (13.4%), and consolidation adjustment (-5.4%). The company enjoyed strong sales growth of 76.3% in 2024 and 78.8% in 2025. ITCEN Global makes money from its gold Web3 services by tokenizing physical gold (RWA: Real World Asset) via its subsidiary Korea Gold Exchange Digital Asset (KORDA), allowing users to trade, stake, and use it as collateral for loans.
Security Token Offerings - Security Token Offerings are digitized securities that allow the ownership of physical assets, such as real estate, gold, and artwork, to be fragmented and traded using blockchain technology.
Web3 - Web3 refers to an internet environment where individuals can directly hold ownership of data and assets.
Key revenue streams include transaction fees from platforms like Sengold, interest from gold-backed lending, and expanding into security token offerings (STOs). The gold is often stored at the Korea Gold Exchange 3M, acquired by ITCEN in 2018. ITCEN works with banks like Hana Bank for trusted, secure gold management.
For Web3 expansion, ITCEN Global has partnered with BPMG to form the digital asset company “Credder.” ITCEN also led the consortium that founded the Busan Digital Asset Exchange, now referred to as Bdan. ITCEN is also collaborating with Naver, which is planning to roll out a stablecoin wallet in Busan.
Core revenue streams for the company’s Gold Web3 Services include the following:
Gold-Backed RWA Tokenization: ITCEN converts physical gold stored at the Korea Gold Exchange into digital tokens.
Staking Income: Users store gold tokens in wallets and can earn annual interest revenue ranging from 1% to 3%.
Stablecoin Loans: The company offers gold-collateralized loans, generating income from interest on these digital asset loans.
Trading Fees & Small Investments: Platforms like “Sengold” facilitate small, high-frequency transactions of digital gold, collecting fees.
The real driver of the company’s sales, profits, and value is the Digital Asset and Web3 vertical, run partly through strategic holdings such as the Korea Gold Exchange Digital Asset. This segment facilitates fractional gold and silver tokenization and underpins the tokenomics of physical commodities traded digitally.
Growing importance of Busan Digital Asset Exchange platform - One of the major growth drivers of the company’s business going forward will likely be the growing demand for products/services from the Busan Digital Asset Exchange platform.
This framework allows institutional owners of illiquid assets, such as precious metals, shipping containers, and real estate portfolios, to split ownership into digital token formats, creating secondary market liquidity. By capturing a baseline transaction fee on both the primary tokenization phase and subsequent secondary trading volume, the company builds an annuity-style revenue engine.
The core of the Web3 unit’s business is to “build and expand an on-chain financial ecosystem that allows for the safe and efficient buying and selling of physical assets, such as gold and silver, by converting them into digital assets.”
This falls under the business domain of the Korea Gold Exchange, which operates a precious metals distribution and trading platform. The Korea Gold Exchange’s generated revenue of 7.7 trillion won and net profit of 165.6 billion won in 2025, accounting for the majority of the consolidated results.
