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South Korean exchange Bithumb wants to go public by 2028. The plan calls for filing a preliminary listing review in 2027 — a bold target for a company still cleaning up the mess from a February promotional disaster.
That February incident is basically the whole reason this IPO story has teeth. A crediting error pushed 620,000 Bitcoin into customer accounts that had no business holding them. Bithumb’s CEO went before the National Assembly and admitted the exchange’s verification process failed outright. Most of the mistakenly credited Bitcoin came back — 99.7%, per the company — but 1,788 BTC slipped through before accounts were frozen, sold off by customers who moved fast enough to beat the lockdown. That’s not a rounding error. That’s a real gap, and regulators noticed.
Restructuring Before the Regulators Arrive
Bithumb isn’t sitting still. The exchange spun off a unit called Bithumb Asset, partly to draw cleaner lines between different parts of the business and reduce conflicts of interest ahead of any listing review. It’s the kind of structural move that auditors and regulators want to see — separate entities, clear accountability, less room for one arm of the business to quietly influence another.
The company is also ditching domestic accounting standards and switching to K-IFRS, the internationally recognized framework that South Korea’s publicly listed companies already use. That shift matters. K-IFRS is stricter, more transparent, and much harder to game than local standards. For any exchange trying to convince institutional investors it’s serious, that’s probably the right call.
Worth noting: the IPO timeline could slip. Bithumb said as much. Market conditions and regulatory review processes could push things back, and given the scrutiny the company is under, that caveat isn’t just boilerplate.
KB Kookmin Bank and the Race Among Korean Exchanges
Bithumb isn’t the only South Korean exchange making moves, but it’s in a distinct position. It’s one of the few platforms in the country that can handle fiat currency transactions through real-name bank accounts, doing so in partnership with KB Kookmin Bank. That’s a meaningful competitive advantage in a market where regulators have pushed hard for verified, traceable financial flows.
But the competition isn’t standing still either. Mirae Asset Consulting grabbed control of Korbit. Dunamu, the company behind Upbit — South Korea’s largest exchange by volume — is working through a share-swap deal that would make it a wholly owned subsidiary of Naver Financial, pending approvals. That’s a significant tie-up between crypto infrastructure and one of South Korea’s biggest internet and financial conglomerates.
Bithumb’s IPO, if it happens on schedule, would drop into that landscape. The exchange would need to show it can compete not just on trading volume but on governance and institutional credibility. That’s a harder sell after February.
Vidente and Bucket Studio Still Stuck
There’s another layer to this story, and it’s messy. Two companies linked to Bithumb — Vidente and Bucket Studio — are dealing with their own regulatory headaches. Trading in shares of both companies has been suspended since March 2023, tied to audit and listing issues that haven’t been fully resolved.
Both firms brought in former government officials for auditing roles, and those appointments cleared the Government Public Service Ethics Committee. It’s a move that signals an attempt to shore up governance, but suspended trading since 2023 is a long time. Unclear when — or whether — those suspensions lift.
For Bithumb, the association with two companies in that kind of limbo isn’t a great look heading into IPO prep. Investors and regulators will ask questions. The exchange will need clean answers.
South Korean crypto regulation has tightened considerably over the past few years, and exchanges operating in that environment face a level of scrutiny that would have been hard to imagine in the early days of the industry. Real-name banking requirements, stricter auditing rules, and growing political attention to crypto fraud have all made compliance a baseline expectation rather than a differentiator.
Bithumb’s decision to adopt K-IFRS, spin off Bithumb Asset, and push toward a public listing can be read as an attempt to get ahead of that regulatory curve rather than react to it. Whether the 2027 preliminary review filing actually happens on time probably depends on how smoothly the internal overhaul goes — and on whether Vidente and Bucket Studio can get their own houses in order.
The 1,788 BTC that customers sold before the freeze? No word yet on whether Bithumb pursued legal recovery on those funds or wrote them off.
Frequently Asked Questions
What was the February Bitcoin crediting error at Bithumb?
Bithumb accidentally credited 620,000 Bitcoin to customer accounts due to a promotional error. The exchange recovered 99.7% of the mistaken credits, but 1,788 BTC was sold by customers before their accounts were frozen.
When does Bithumb plan to list on a stock exchange?
Bithumb aims to file for a preliminary listing review in 2027 and complete its IPO in 2028, though the company said the timeline could shift based on market conditions and regulatory review processes.
