Bithumb

Bithumb
FormerlyBTC Korea.com; Bithumb Korea
TypePrivate
IndustryCryptocurrency exchange
FoundedJanuary 2014
HeadquartersGangnam District, Seoul, South Korea
RevenueIncrease ₩651.3 billion (2025)
Increase ₩163.5 billion (2025)
ParentBithumb Holdings
Websitebithumb.com
Footnotes
Partner bank: KB Kookmin Bank (since March 2025)

Bithumb (Korean: 빗썸) is a South Korean cryptocurrency exchange headquartered in Gangnam District, Seoul. Founded in 2014, with headquarters in Seoul, it initially went by the name Xcoin, but was rebranded as Bithumb in 2015. Its operating company was established in January 2014 as BTC Korea.com. Since March 2025, KB Kookmin Bank has provided real-name-verified bank accounts for Bithumb customers' South Korean won deposits and withdrawals. In May 2025, the Korea Fair Trade Commission designated the Bithumb group as a business group subject to public disclosure requirements.

History

In October 2018, BK Global Consortium signed an agreement to acquire a majority stake in BTC Holding Co., Bithumb's largest investor.

On January 22, 2019, the OTC-listed holding company Blockchain Industries signed a binding letter of intent to merge with Bithumb on or before March 1, 2019. The proposal called for the creation of a new publicly traded entity, the Blockchain Exchange Alliance (BXA), which would seek to uplist on either the New York Stock Exchange or NASDAQ, potentially making BXA the first major cryptocurrency exchange to go public.

On April 11, 2019, Bithumb reported a net loss of KRW205.5 billion (US$180 million) for 2018, compared with a profit of KRW427.2 billion in 2017, although its 2018 sales had risen 17.5% to KRW391.7 million. The company attributed the loss to the sharp decline in cryptocurrency prices and lower trading volume.

In October 2024, following a shareholder vote on 30 September 2024, the operating company changed its corporate name from Bithumb Korea to Bithumb.

In January 2025, Bithumb announced that its partner bank for real-name deposit and withdrawal accounts would change from NH NongHyup Bank, with which it had worked since 2018, to KB Kookmin Bank, effective 24 March 2025.

According to data from Kaiko cited by Bloomberg, Bithumb accounted for about a quarter of trading volume across South Korean cryptocurrency exchanges in May 2025, up from a single-digit share in 2023.

For 2025, Bithumb reported revenue of ₩651.3 billion and operating income of ₩163.5 billion.

Bithumb had planned an initial public offering for 2025. In August 2026, it announced a roadmap targeting completion of the offering in 2028, including a transition from K-GAAP to K-IFRS accounting standards.

Controversy

In June 2017, hackers stole user information from a Bithumb employee's personal computer.

In January 2018, Bithumb was raided by the government for alleged tax evasion. They were found not guilty, but still had to pay nearly $28 million in back taxes.

In June 2018, approximately $32 million of cryptocurrency was stolen from Bithumb in a hack.

In January 2019, 30 out of 340 total Bithumb employees were laid off in response to declining trading volume and profits in 2018.

On March 29, 2019, Bithumb said it had been hacked, blaming insiders, with nearly $20 million in EOS and Ripple tokens stolen.

On September 2, 2020, local Korean news reported that Bithumb was raided by the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency over suspected investment fraud.

In February 2026, Bithumb mistakenly transferred approximately 620,000 bitcoin, at a rate of roughly 2,000 bitcoin per user, to the accounts of 695 customers. The total transferred was in excess of US$40 billion. Bithumb stated that it reversed the transaction within 35 minutes and managed to recover 99.7% of the funds. Bithumb announced compensation of 110% of losses for users who sold at lower prices during the incident and ₩20,000 for users who were logged in at the time, and waived trading fees for one week. The company also announced a ₩100 billion customer protection fund and additional internal controls, including multi-step approval procedures and round-the-clock monitoring of abnormal transactions.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "팩트체크. 빗썸, '세무조사·현장확인·압수수색' 정답은?" [Fact check: Bithumb — tax audit, on-site check or raid?]. Joseh Geumyung Shinmun (in Korean). January 11, 2018. Retrieved October 26, 2026.
  2. 1 2 "빗썸, 사명 '빗썸코리아'→'빗썸' 변경" [Bithumb changes corporate name from Bithumb Korea to Bithumb]. Segye Ilbo (in Korean). October 30, 2024. Retrieved October 26, 2026.
  3. 1 2 3 "Bithumb Claims Larger Slice of Korea's Crypto Space Ahead of IPO". Bloomberg News. May 19, 2025. Retrieved October 26, 2026.
  4. 1 2 "리츠 품은 빗썸, 강남서 새 판 짠다" [Bithumb expands office space in Gangnam]. SBS Biz (in Korean). May 22, 2026. Retrieved October 26, 2026.
  5. 1 2 3 "빗썸, 지난해 영업이익 1635억원…2년 연속 흑자" [Bithumb posts 163.5 billion won operating profit for 2025]. Metro Seoul (in Korean). March 31, 2026. Retrieved October 26, 2026.
  6. ↑ "빗썸 지배구조" [Bithumb ownership structure]. HuffPost Korea (in Korean). Retrieved October 26, 2026.
  7. 1 2 3 "Bithumb to change account issuance partner bank from NongHyup to Kookmin". The Korea Times. January 13, 2025. Retrieved October 26, 2026.
  8. ↑ Park, Ga-young (January 17, 2019). "Crypto exchange Bithumb scales down on poor market conditions". The Korea Herald. Archived from the original on July 25, 2020. Retrieved July 25, 2020.
  9. ↑ Kim, Chang Yeon; Lee, Kyungho (2018). "Risk Management to Cryptocurrency Exchange and Investors Guidelines to Prevent Potential Threats". 2018 International Conference on Platform Technology and Service (PlatCon). Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. pp. 1–6. doi:10.1109/PlatCon.2018.8472760. ISBN 978-1-5386-4710-3. S2CID 52902712.
  10. ↑ Jo, Jay. "The Story of Bithumb". reports.tiger-research.com. Retrieved January 29, 2025.
  11. ↑ "Bithumb to come under stricter regulation upon FTC's large conglomerate designation". Korea JoongAng Daily. May 1, 2025. Retrieved October 26, 2026.
  12. ↑ "Plastic Surgeon Buys $352 Million Stake in South Korea Crypto Exchange". Bloomberg. October 11, 2018.
  13. ↑ Rooney, Kate (January 22, 2019). "One of the world's largest crypto exchanges looks to go public in U.S. in reverse merger". www.cnbc.com. Retrieved January 23, 2019.
  14. ↑ Bo-uen, Kim (April 11, 2019). "Bithumb suffers W205 bil. net loss on falling bitcoin". koreatimes. Retrieved April 11, 2019.
  15. ↑ "빗썸, 2028년 IPO 추진…단계별 로드맵 수립" [Bithumb pursues 2028 IPO with phased roadmap]. MTN (in Korean). August 4, 2026. Retrieved October 26, 2026.
  16. ↑ "빗썸, 내년 상장 예비심사 청구…2028년 IPO 목표" [Bithumb to file for preliminary listing review next year, targeting 2028 IPO]. The Herald Business (in Korean). August 3, 2026. Retrieved October 26, 2026.
  17. ↑ "One of the Biggest Ethereum and Bitcoin Exchanges Got Hacked". Fortune. July 5, 2017.
  18. ↑ "Authorities raid South Korea's largest cryptocurrency exchanges". CNBC. January 10, 2018.
  19. ↑ "Korea's No. 2 digital coin exchange Bithumb slapped with W30b taxes". The Investor. January 10, 2018.
  20. ↑ "Korea's major crypto exchange Bithumb hacked; coins worth $32 million stolen". The Korean Times. June 20, 2018.
  21. ↑ "From Coincheck to Bithumb: 2018's Largest Security Breaches So Far". Cointelegraph. June 27, 2018. Archived from the original on June 27, 2018. Retrieved December 11, 2025.
  22. ↑ "Korea's Bithumb sheds employees by 10% as it takes digital money business overseas". Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea. January 17, 2019.
  23. ↑ Cimpanu, Catalin (March 30, 2019). "Bithumb cryptocurrency exchange hacked a third time in two years". ZDNet. Retrieved June 6, 2019.
  24. ↑ "[단독] 국내 1위 암호화폐거래소 '빗썸' 전격 압수수색" [Exclusive Search and seizure of]. Seoul Newspaper (in Korean). September 2, 2020. Retrieved September 15, 2020.
  25. ↑ Veil, Brandi (September 8, 2020). "Seoul Police Raids Cryptocurrency Exchange Bithumb's Office Again for Fraud Related Investigations". The Coin Republic. Retrieved December 11, 2025.
  26. ↑ "S Korean crypto firm accidentally pays out $40bn in bitcoin". www.bbc.com. February 7, 2026. Retrieved May 11, 2026.
  27. 1 2 "Bithumb races to contain 'Bitcoin misallocation' fallout with 100 billion won fund and 110% compensation". The Financial News. February 8, 2026. Retrieved October 26, 2026.
  28. ↑ "빗썸 "오지급 사고 자산 정합성 100% 이상 확보"…보상 지급 순차 진행" [Bithumb says asset integrity fully secured after payout error; compensation to proceed]. Newsis (in Korean). February 8, 2026. Retrieved October 26, 2026.