South Korea’s cryptocurrency alternate, Bithumb, has formally pushed again its lengthy‑awaited preliminary public providing (IPO) to someday after 2028, marking one more delay in plans that have been initially aiming for a 2025 itemizing. This improvement comes after a mishap price $43 billion.
The announcement got here through the firm’s annual shareholders assembly in Seoul. CFO Jeong Sang-gyun mentioned the corporate continues to arrange for its IPO and has signed an advisory cope with Samjong KPMG.
Bithumb delays its IPO to repair inner techniques and guidelines.
Bithumb is likely one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in South Korea, so customers have been excited when the corporate first introduced plans to checklist on the inventory market in 2025. Nevertheless, the alternate later pushed the IPO to 2027, however now they are saying it can seemingly occur after 2028.
Opposite to rumors of its failure, the corporate earned about 651 billion received ($430 million) in 2025, particularly 163.5 billion received ($108 million) after deducting sorting operation prices. Equally, the recorded internet revenue was 78 billion received ($51.5 million), and the corporate even elevated its market share to above 30%.
Furthermore, Bithumb added about 1.74 million new subscribers and made main adjustments, together with switching financial institution companions from NH Nonghyup Financial institution to KB Kookmin Financial institution, which has the most important buyer base in South Korea.
Though Bithumb is financially sturdy, the corporate nonetheless needs to work on its accounting insurance policies, inner controls, and different guidelines to create a protected atmosphere for public buyers. It even signed a contract with Samjong KPMG to assist Bithumb put together for its 2028 IPO and guarantee it avoids errors earlier than itemizing on the inventory market.
The delay may additionally imply the corporate needs to maximise its worth and entice the best doable worth and the strongest market popularity when it lastly goes public.
Equally, the IPO postponement stems from inner opinions following a $43 billion Bitcoin mispayment earlier this yr, so the corporate should work to enhance its techniques.
Bitcoin mistake and regulator actions sluggish itemizing plans.
Throughout a promotional marketing campaign in 2026, a Bithumb employees member by accident despatched extra BTC to customers past the quantity the corporate had in its reserve. The employees despatched about 620,000 Bitcoin ($43 billion) as a substitute of 620,000 received price of BTC, whereas the corporate solely held about 46,000 BTC in whole.
This error lowered BTC worth on Bithumb by 15%, and regardless that the corporate recovered 99.7% of the funds, many customers had already panicked after the sudden drop and bought off their BTC. The corporate then later recovered 93% of the Bitcoin bought.
Nevertheless, Bithumb nonetheless couldn’t get well about 125 BTC and has promised to compensate everybody who suffered losses with round 110% to attempt to restore belief and in a present of duty.
Bithumb established a particular job pressure to assessment transactions, assess the approval course of, and make sure that no worker could make massive transactions with out affirmation. The corporate additionally arrange a person safety fund price 100 billion received ($68 million) to compensate customers within the occasion of the same incident sooner or later.
The Monetary Supervisory Service realized of the incident and launched a full investigation into Bithumb, specializing in the corporate’s inner controls and threat administration. Regulators needed to know whether or not the corporate holds the identical quantity of digital belongings as customers deposit, as required by the Digital Asset Person Safety Act.
Regulators additionally checked Bithumb’s techniques to see how the ledger works and monitor the system that tracks deposits and trades. Moreover, they checked the approval course of for big transactions as a result of the truth that an worker may ship lots of of hundreds of BTC directly was a major problem.
Lastly, the regulator fined Bithumb about 36 billion received (roughly $27 million) and quickly suspended a few of its providers. Bithumb is contemplating difficult the fines in courtroom, however the firm can not go public in the meanwhile as a consequence of these regulatory points.
Equally, Bithumb is now implementing reforms to make sure compliance with upcoming digital asset legal guidelines in South Korea and to keep away from additional delaying the IPO.
The firm has additionally made plans to accomplice with different firms to diversify its income and cut back its dependence on fee earnings, which accounts for nearly 98% of its present earnings.
Bithumb needs to make sure that no weaknesses stay by the point they go public, and that Bitcoin mispayment was an enormous wake-up name that reveals even the most important and strongest firms available in the market could make errors.
In case you’re studying this, you’re already forward. Keep there with our e-newsletter.